Nanoscience opportunities in environmental remediation

Semiconductor nanostructures play an important role in developing smart materials that can simultaneously sense and destroy harmful chemical contaminants from our environment. This review article highlights some recent advances of nanoscience in the area of environmental remediation. The potential for improving the effectiveness of photocatalytic processes by means of semiconductor-metal nanocomposites and merits of combining two advanced oxidation processes are discussed. (C) 2003 Published by Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS on behalf of Academie des sciences.