Abstract
The use of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in commercial products has increased due to their antibacterial properties and their impacts on the environment must be investigated. This scenario has motivated the conduction of this study, which relates different factors that affect the toxicity of AgNPs to the aquatic plant Lemna minor such as size, accumulation, concentration, and dissolution of AgNPs. To this end, synthesized AgNPs measuring 30, 85, and 110 nm were added into the culture medium to observe toxicity for 30 days. The mapping by SEM showed that the smallest AgNPs can translocate from roots to leaves due to its mobility and internalization. As predicted by the Ostwald equation, the solubility for 30-nm AgNPs increased almost 3 times at the end of 30 days, while for 85 and 110 nm size nanoparticles, after 7 days, the solubility decreased due to “Ostwald ripening” process. Plant mortality was assessed and, after 1 month, the size of 30 nm was the most toxic with negative growth in all studied concentrations, with 60% mortality in the worst case. The concentration of 50 μg mL−1 was toxic in all sizes with negative growth in the period. Therefore, the investigation of AgNPs’ toxicity needs to consider a different factor to better understand their effects on aquatic plants and the environment.
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Acknowledgement
The authors are very grateful to the research group of Prof. Dr. Luiz Alberto Beraldo de Moraes for supplying the Lemna minor samples and to Cynthia M. C. Prado Manso for reviewing the manuscript.
Funding
The authors are grateful to Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) for the scholarship and to Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) for financial support.
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Lilian Rodrigues Rosa Souza: conceptualization, investigation, experimentation, writing, review, and editing. Tuany Z. Corrêa: investigation and experimentation. Aline Thaís Bruni: investigation, experimentation, and writing. Márcia A. M. S. da Veiga: conceptualization, writing, review, and editing.
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Souza, L.R.R., Corrêa, T.Z., Bruni, A.T. et al. The effects of solubility of silver nanoparticles, accumulation, and toxicity to the aquatic plant Lemna minor. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 16720–16733 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11862-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11862-1