Biotoxicity of TiO 2 Nanoparticles on Raphidocelis subcapitata Microalgae Exemplified by Membrane Deformation

Merve Ozkaleli and Ayca Erdem
Additional contact information
Merve Ozkaleli: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Akdeniz University, Antalya 07058, Turkey
Ayca Erdem: Department of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Akdeniz University, Antalya 07058, Turkey

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-12

Abstract: TiO 2 nanoparticles (NPs), which are mainly used in consumer products (mostly cosmetics), have been found to cause ecotoxic effects in the aquatic environment. The green algae Raphidocelis subcapitata , as a representative of primary producers of the freshwater ecosystem, has been frequently used to study the effects of metal oxide NPs. An ecotoxicity study was conducted herein to investigate the effects of TiO 2 NPs on survival and membrane deformation of algal cells. Five different concentrations of nano-TiO 2 particles (1, 10, 50, 100 and 500 mg/L) were prepared in synthetic surface water samples with five different water quality characteristics (pH 6.4–8.4, hardness 10–320 mg CaCO 3 /L, ionic strength 0.2–8 mM, and alkalinity 10–245 mg CaCO 3 /L). Results showed a significant increase in the hydrodynamic diameter of NPs with respect to both NP concentrations and ionic content of the test system. A soft synthetic freshwater system at pH 7.3 ± 0.2 appeared to provide the most effective water type, with more than 95% algal mortality observed at 50, 100 and 500 mg/L NP concentrations. At high exposure concentrations, increased malondialdehyde formations were observed. Moreover, due to membrane deformation, TEM images correlated the uptake of the NPs.

Keywords: TiO 2 nanoparticles; synthetic freshwater; membrane deformation; Raphidocelis subcapitata (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/3/416/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/3/416/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:3:p:416-:d:133782

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().