scholarly journals Synthesis, Characterisation, Photocatalytic Activity, and Aquatic Toxicity Evaluation of TiO2 Nanoparticles

Nanomaterials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 3197
Author(s):  
Luminita Andronic ◽  
Alina Vladescu ◽  
Alexandru Enesca

Imidacloprid (IMD) is a toxic pesticide, and is one of the eight most widely used pesticides globally. Heterogeneous photocatalysis has often been investigated in recent years and can be successfully applied to remove imidacloprid from water. However, less investigated is the toxic effect of both the photocatalyst and the pesticide on aquatic life. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) remains the most effective photocatalyst, provided it is not toxic to the aquatic environment. This study investigated the TiO2 synthesis, characterisation, and photocatalytic activity on imidacloprid degradation and the toxicity of TiO2 nanoparticles and imidacloprid on the green algae Chlorella vulgaris. In the photodegradation process of IMD (initial concentration of 20 mg/L), electrons play an essential role; the degradation efficiency of IMD after 6 h increased from 69 to 90% under UV irradiation when holes (h+) scavengers were added, which allowed the electrons to react with the pollutant, resulting in lowering the recombination rate of electron-hole charge carriers. Growth inhibition of Chlorella vulgaris and effective concentration (EC50) were determined to study the toxic effect of TiO2 nanoparticles and imidacloprid. The EC50 increased from 289.338 mg/L in the first 24 h to 1126.75 mg/L after 96 h Chlorella vulgaris algal age, when the toxicant was TiO2. When IMD was the aquatic toxicant, a decrease in EC50 was observed from 22.8 mg/L (24 h) to 0.00777 mg/L (120 h), suggesting a long-term high toxicity level when pesticides in low concentrations are present in an aquatic environment.

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e4601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rana Aljaibachi ◽  
Amanda Callaghan

Microplastics (MPs) in the environment continue to be a growing area of concern in terms of acute and chronic impacts on aquatic life. Whilst increasing numbers of studies are providing important insights into microparticle behaviour and impacts in the marine environment, a paucity of information exists regarding the freshwater environment. This study focusses on the uptake, retention and the impact of 2 µm polystyrene MPs in the freshwater cladoceran Daphnia magna in relation to food intake (algae Chlorella vulgaris), with MP size chosen to approximately match the cell size of the algae. Daphnia were exposed to varied concentrations of MPs and algae. When exposed to a single concentration of MPs Daphnia almost immediately ate them in large quantities. However, the presence of algae, even at low concentrations, had a significant negative impact on MP uptake that was not in proportion to relative availability. As MP concentrations increased, intake did not if algae were present, even at higher concentrations of MPs. This suggests that Daphnia are selectively avoiding eating plastics. Adult Daphnia exposed to MPs for 21 days showed mortality after seven days of exposure in all treatments compared to the control. However significant differences were all related to algal concentration rather than to MP concentration. This suggests that where ample food is present, MPs have little effect on adults. There was also no impact on their reproduction. The neonate toxicity test confirmed previous results that mortality and reproduction was linked to availability of food rather than MP concentrations. This would make sense in light of our suggestion that Daphnia are selectively avoiding eating microplastics.


Author(s):  
Cristina Adochite ◽  
Luminita Andronic

Nanoparticles have applications in various fields such as manufacturing and materials synthesis, the environment, electronics, energy harvesting, and medicine. Besides many applications of nanoparticles, further research is required for toxic environmental effect investigation. The toxic effect of titanium dioxide nanoparticles on the physiology of the green alga Chlorella vulgaris was studied with a widely used pesticide, imidacloprid (IMD). Chlorella vulgaris was exposed for 120 h in Bold’s basal medium to different toxic compounds, such as (i) a high concentration of TiO2 nanoparticles, 150–2000 mg/L, usually optimised in the photocatalytic degradation of wastewater, (ii) an extremely toxic pesticide for the aquatic environment, imidacloprid, in concentrations ranging from 5 to 40 mg/L, (iii) TiO2 nanoparticles combined with imidacloprid, usually used in a photocatalytic system. The results show that the TiO2 nanoparticles and IMD inhibited Chlorella vulgaris cell growth and decreased the biovolume by approximately 80% when 2 g/L TiO2 was used, meaning that the cells devised a mechanism to cope with a potentially stressful situation; 120 h of Chlorella vulgaris exposure to 40 mg/L of IMD resulted in a 16% decreased cell diameter and a 41% decrease in cell volume relative to the control sample, associated with the toxic effect of pesticides on the cells. Our study confirms the toxicity of nanoparticles through algal growth inhibition with an effective concentration (EC50) value measured after 72 h of 388.14 mg/L for TiO2 and 13 mg/L for IMD in a single-toxic system. The EC50 of TiO2 slowly decreased from 258.42 to 311.11 mg/L when IMD from 5 to 20 mg/L was added to the binary-toxic system. The concentration of TiO2 in the binary-toxic system did not change the EC50 for IMD, and its value was 0.019 g/L. The photodegradation process of imidacloprid (range of 5–40 mg/L) was also investigated in the algal medium incubated with 150–600 mg/L of titanium dioxide.


Author(s):  
V. I. Ipatova ◽  
A. G. Dmitrieva ◽  
О. F. Filenko ◽  
T. V. Drozdenko

The structure of the laboratory population of green microalgae Scenedesmus quadricauda (Turp.) Breb (=Desmodesmus communis E. Hegew.) was studied at different stages of its growth (lag-phase, log-phase and stationary phase) at low concentrations of copper chloride and silver nitrate by the method microculture, allowing to monitor the state and development of single cells having different physiological status. The response of the culture of S. quadricauda - the change in the number of cells and the fractional composition (the fraction of dividing, «dormant» and dying cells) depended not only on the concentration of the toxicant in the medium, but also on the physiological state of the culture: the level of synchronization and the growth phase. Silver ions at low concentrations had a more pronounced toxic effect on the culture than copper ions at different phases of its development, especially at a concentration of 0.001 mg/l (10-9 M). The main mechanism of the toxic effect of metals is to inhibit the process of cell division. At low concentrations of toxicants, especially at a concentration of 0.001 mg/l, a «paradoxical» effect expressed in the predominance of the fraction of «dormant» cells was revealed. The temporary inhibition of the process of cell division can be regarded as a protective mechanism that allows preserving the integrity of the population and its ability to survive in a changing environment. The obtained data explain the effect of action of low concentrations of substances due to their inclusion in the cell, the subsequent accumulation in the cell and their low excretion.


Water ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Cristina Adochite ◽  
Luminita Andronic

In the last years, nanoparticles such as TiO2, ZnO, NiO, CuO and Fe2O3 were mainly used in wastewater applications. In addition to the positive aspects concerning using nanoparticles in the advanced oxidation process of wastewater containing pollutants, the impact of these nanoparticles on the environment must also be investigated. The toxicity of nanoparticles is generally investigated by the nanomaterials’ effect on green algae, especially on Chlorella vulgaris. In this review, several aspects are reviewed: the Chlorella vulgaris culture monitoring and growth parameters, the effect of different nanoparticles on Chlorella vulgaris, the toxicity of photocatalyst nanoparticles, and the mechanism of photocatalyst during oxidative stress on the photosynthetic mechanism of Chlorella vulgaris. The Bold basal medium (BBM) is generally recognized as an excellent standard cultivation medium for Chlorella vulgaris in the known environmental conditions such as temperature in the range 20–30 °C and light intensity of around 150 μE·m2·s−1 under a 16/8 h light/dark cycle. The nanoparticles synthesis methods influence the particle size, morphology, density, surface area to generate growth inhibition and further algal deaths at the nanoparticle-dependent concentration. Moreover, the results revealed that nanoparticles caused a more potent inhibitory effect on microalgal growth and severely disrupted algal cells’ membranes.


Coatings ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 165
Author(s):  
Sandip Madhukar Deshmukh ◽  
Mohaseen S. Tamboli ◽  
Hamid Shaikh ◽  
Santosh B. Babar ◽  
Dipak P. Hiwarale ◽  
...  

In the present work, we have reported a facile and large-scale synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) through urea-assisted thermal decomposition of titanium oxysulphate. We have successfully synthesized TiO2 NPs by using this effective route with different weight ratios of titanium oxysulphate: urea. The structures and properties of TiO2 NPs were confirmed by scanning electron microscope) (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), ultra violet–visible spectroscopy (UV-vis), and photoluminescence (Pl) techniques. XRD demonstrated that TiO2 NPs holds of anatase crystal phase with crystallizing size 14–19 nm even after heating at 600 °C. TGA, SEM, and TEM images reveal urea’s role, which controls the size, morphology, and aggregation of TiO2 NPs during the thermal decomposition. These TiO2 NPs were employed for photodegradation of Methyl Orange (MO) in the presence of ultraviolet (UV) radiation. An interesting find was that the TiO2 NPs exhibited better photocatalytic activity and excellent recycling stability over several photodegradation cycles. Furthermore, the present method has a great perspective to be used as an efficient method for large-scale synthesis of TiO2 NPs.


2021 ◽  
pp. 138897
Author(s):  
Suresh Sagadevan ◽  
J. Anita Lett ◽  
Getu Kassegn Weldegebrieal ◽  
Md Rokon ud Dowla Biswas ◽  
Won Chun Oh ◽  
...  

Catalysts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 117
Author(s):  
Zahir Muhammad ◽  
Farman Ali ◽  
Muhammad Sajjad ◽  
Nisar Ali ◽  
Muhammad Bilal ◽  
...  

Degradation of organic dyes and their byproducts by heterogeneous photocatalysts is an essential process, as these dyes can be potentially discharged in wastewater and threaten aquatic and xerophyte life. Therefore, their complete mineralization into nontoxic components (water and salt) is necessary through the process of heterogeneous photocatalysis. In this study, Zr/CrO2 (Zirconium-doped chromium IV oxide) nanocomposite-based photocatalysts with different compositions (1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 wt.%) were prepared by an environmentally friendly, solid-state reaction at room temperature. The as-prepared samples were calcined under air at 450 °C in a furnace for a specific period of time. The synthesis of Zr/CrO2 photocatalysts was confirmed by various techniques, including XRD, SEM, EDX, FT-IR, UV-Vis, and BET. The photocatalytic properties of all samples were tested towards the degradation of methylene blue and methyl orange organic dyes under UV light. The results revealed a concentration-dependent photocatalytic activity of photocatalysts, which increased the amount of dopant (up to 5 wt.%). However, the degradation efficiency of the catalysts decreased upon further increasing the amount of dopant due to the recombination of holes and photoexcited electrons.


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