The issue of environmental pollution has become a hot issue in today’s world. Environmental pollution, mainly caused by toxic chemicals, includes air, water, and soil pollution. This pollution results not only in the destruction of biodiversity, but also the degradation of human health. Pollution levels that are increasing day by day need better developments or technological discoveries immediately. Nanotechnology offers many advantages to improve existing environmental technologies and create new technology that is better than current technology. In this sense, nanotechnology has three main capabilities that can be applied in the fields of environment, including the cleanup (remediation) and purification, the detection of contaminants (sensing and detection), and the pollution prevention.

In today’s world where industries have been modernized and advanced, our environment is filled with various types of pollutants emitted from human activities or industrial processes. Examples of these pollutants are carbon monoxide (CO), chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), heavy metals (arsenic, chromium, lead, cadmium, mercury and zinc), hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, organic compounds (volatile organic compounds and dioxins), sulfur dioxide and particulates. Human activities, such as oil, coal and gas combustion, have significant potential to change emissions from natural sources. In addition to air pollution, there is also water pollution caused by various factors, including waste disposal, oil spills, leakage of fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, by-products of industrial processes and combustion and extraction of fossil fuels.

Contaminants are mostly found mixed in the air, water and soil. Thus, we need a technology that is able to monitor, detect and, if possible, clean the contaminants from the air, water and soil. In this context, nanotechnology offers a wide range of capabilities and technologies to improve the quality of existing environment.

Nanotechnology offers the ability to control matter at the nanoscale and create materials that have specific properties with a specific function. Surveys from selected European Union (EU) media show relatively high optimism with respect to the chances/risk ratio associated with nanotechnology, where most of them have been attributed to the prospect of improvement in the quality of life and health.