Bioaccumulation is a key factor in understanding the potential ecotoxicity of substances. While there are well-developed models and methods to evaluate bioaccumulation of dissolved organic and inorganic substances, it is substantially more challenging to assess bioaccumulation of particulate contaminants such as engineered carbon nanomaterials (CNMs; carbon nanotubes (CNTs), graphene family nanomaterials (GFNs), and fullerenes) and nanoplastics. In this study, the methods used to evaluate bioaccumulation of different CNMs and nanoplastics are critically reviewed. In plant studies, uptake of CNMs and nanoplastics into the roots and stems was observed. For multicellular organisms other than plants, absorbance across epithelial surfaces was typically limited. Biomagnification was not observed for CNTs and GFNs but were observed for nanoplastics in some studies. However, the reported absorption in many nanoplastic studies may be a consequence of an experimental artifact, namely release of the fluorescent probe from the plastic particles and subsequent uptake. We identify that additional work is needed to develop analytical methods to provide robust, orthogonal methods that can measure unlabeled (e.g., without isotopic or fluorescent labels) CNMs and nanoplastics.

生物蓄积是了解物质潜在生态毒性的关键因素。虽然有完善的模型和方法来评估溶解的有机和无机物质的生物蓄积性，但评估工程碳纳米材料（CNMs；碳纳米管（CNTs）、石墨烯族纳米材料（GFNs）等颗粒污染物的生物蓄积性更具挑战性和富勒烯）和纳米塑料。在这项研究中，对用于评估不同 CNM 和纳米塑料的生物蓄积性的方法进行了严格审查。在植物研究中，观察到 CNM 和纳米塑料被吸收到根和茎中。对于植物以外的多细胞生物，上皮表面的吸光度通常是有限的。CNT 和 GFN 未观察到生物放大，但在一些研究中观察到纳米塑料。然而，许多纳米塑料研究中报告的吸收可能是实验伪影的结果，即荧光探针从塑料颗粒中释放并随后被吸收。我们发现需要额外的工作来开发分析方法，以提供可以测量未标记（例如，没有同位素或荧光标记）CNM 和纳米塑料的稳健、正交方法。