Nanotoxicology studies on several organisms is a current research trend due to the continous use and release of nanomaterials into the environment. Several model organisms are being studied, yet there is little information about the effect of nanomaterials on anaerobic bacteria. This paper shows results on the study of silver nanoparticle toxicity to the anaerobic bacteria Desulfovibrio alaskensis (D. alaskensis) G20. In this study, we used acrylate-capped silver nanoparticles (NPs) synthesized from a silver hydroxide precursor with sodium acrylate serving as both a protecting ligand and reducing agent and studied the inhibitory effect on the growth of D. alaskensis G20. Characterization of the synthesized particles employed currently used techniques including scanning electron microscopy, elemental dispersive spectroscopy, ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. Bacterial growth inhibition was characterized by live/dead cell count, total cell protein, and maximum specific growth rate calculations. In addition to bacterial growth inhibition, we also show that the NPs used are resistant to formation of highly insoluble silver sulfides from the reaction with hydrogen sulfide gas produced by the SRB. This resistance is an important property, as our studies have not been able to detect significant growth inhibition when D. alaskensis was exposed to silver sulfide alone. Our findings are significant to the understanding of the effects of silver nanoparticles on the growth of anaerobic bacteria.

Toxicity studies of silver nanoparticles on the anaerobic sulfate reducing bacteria Desulfovibrio alaskensis

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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