With their increased production

application

and emissions to environment

adverse effects of carbon nanotubes(CNTs) on environment and human health have attracted wide attention.However

much of the research effort has been focused on biological effects of CNTs alone.Due to their high adsorption ability

CNTs are easy to adsorb various toxic metal ions in environment and form CNT-metal ions complex.Biological effects of the complex differ from the individual effect of CNTs or ions

being far from a simple pile-up effect of CNTs and ions.In this paper

we give a review on metal ions adsorption on CNTs

the affecting factors

and environmental toxicology of CNT-metal ions complex.We also point out that radionuclide tracer techniques and synchrotron radiation techniques can play important roles in studies on interactions of metal ions with CNTs and the biological effects on environmental toxicology.