A critical review on the applications and potential risks of emerging MoS₂ nanomaterials

Molybdenum disulfide (MoS₂) nanomaterials have been widely used in various fields such as energy store and transformation, environment protection, and biomedicine due to their unique physicochemical properties. Unfortunately, such large-scale production and use of MoS₂ nanomaterials would inevitably release into the environmental system and then potentially increase the risks of wildlife/ecosystem and human beings as well. In this review, we first introduce the physicochemichemical properties, synthetic methods and environmental behaviors of MoS₂ nanomaterials and their typical functionalized materials, then summarize their environmental and biomedical applications, next assess their potential health risks, covering in vivo and in vitro studies, along with the underlying toxicological mechanisms, and last point out some special phenomena about the balance between applications and potential risks. This review aims to provide guidance for harm predication induced by MoS₂ nanomaterials and to suggest prevention measures based on the recent research progress of MoS₂' applications and exerting toxicological data.