The increased flux of engineered nanomaterial products during their use and disposal has become a viable threat, particularly if their release affects the environment. Thus, the interaction of nanomaterial catalysts in environmental matrices is significant in understanding the risk of potential exposure and/or uptake by the biota. The nano-ecotoxicity of the popular environmental catalysts is less-discussed, which are directly or indirectly injected into the groundwater for the environmental clean-up. Based on recent (nano)toxicity literature and their industrial exploitation, iron-based catalysts such as a metal/metal oxide (nano-zerovalent iron (nFe0), magnetite, bimetallic Bi/nFe0), surface-coated iron-oxide (carboxymethylcellulose (CMC)-nFe0, ferromagnetic oxide interface with MgO as insulating layer (Fe:MgO), carbon-based (mesoporous carbon, graphene oxide), and commercial catalysts (nanofer and RNIP (reactive nanoscale iron particle) were chosen in the present study. Herein, we demonstrate the difference at the toxicity level towards the four kinds of environmentally relevant model organisms: (i) Arabidopsis thaliana (plant as a producer), (ii) Daphnia magna (crustacean as a consumer), (iii) Eisenia fetida (earthworm), and (iv) Escherichia coli and Bacillus subtilis (bacterial species as decomposers). The aquatic group organisms demonstrated higher negative impacts compared to the terrestrial group organisms considering growth rate, physical change, and oxidative damage parameters. Our findings can help in the synthesis and design of the environment-friendly catalyst for the groundwater remediation which further propels to investigate the nanomaterial behavior in the environment.

Nano-ecotoxicity of the environmental catalyst to the aquatic and terrestrial environment

251st National Meeting (2016)

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