ABSTRACT
The importance of sensors is becoming more and more evident in daily life; something similar happens with nanotechnology. In view of this, nanosensors have begun to position themselves as devices with better characteristics, since their advantages in terms of sensitivity, precision, speed and ease of production are undoubted. The use of nanosensors has made it possible to optimize numerous tasks in fields such as medicine, environmental monitoring and decontamination, generation and use of energy, among others. However, the characterization and study of the nanomaterials (NMs) necessary for the manufacture of nanosensors and similar devices is not easy due to the enormous diversity of said materials and their physical and chemical characteristics. NMs can be natural or synthetic. Despite the fact that synthetic NMs are present in smaller amounts than natural ones and that their proper use can be beneficial for the environment and human beings, their existence also implies a series of potential risks of negative effects on water, the soil and the atmosphere. Likewise, if NMs enter human organisms recurrently and in increasing amounts, this could lead to generating toxicity in cells, which can lead to problems such as DNA damage, oxidative stress, mutations and carcinogenic processes, among others. In order to adequately address the implications that the growing use of NMs will entail in the future, it is necessary to thoroughly assess the risks that their life cycle implies, since these have many differences—even when they have in general terms certain similarities with the materials that can be called traditional, in relation to some physicochemical characteristics. Therefore, the assessment of risks related to NMs requires addressing their enormous diversity based on obtaining quality information that allows not only a better understanding of their behavior and particularities, but also understanding how to minimize risks to the environment and human health. In this order of ideas, the risk assessment of functional nanomaterials for the production of sensors faces numerous challenges the overcoming of which depends, in general terms, on the participation of numerous actors that will help through research and the structuring of regulatory frameworks, among other tasks, to fill the information gaps that generate uncertainty. In this chapter, we present an overview of this topic.
