Reducing Environmental Toxicity of Silver Nanoparticles through Shape Control

Abstract

The use of antibacterial silver nanomaterials in consumer products ranging from textiles to toys has given rise to concerns over their environmental toxicity. These materials, primarily nanoparticles, have been shown to be toxic to a wide range of organisms; thus methods and materials that reduce their environmental toxicity while retaining their useful antibacterial properties can potentially solve this problem. Here we demonstrate that silver nanocubes display a lower toxicity toward the model plant species Lolium multiflorum while showing similar toxicity toward other environmentally relevant and model organisms (Danio rerio and Caenorhabditis elegans) and bacterial species (Esherichia coli, Bacillus cereus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) compared to quasi-spherical silver nanoparticles and silver nanowires. More specifically, in the L. multiflorum experiments, the roots of silver nanocube treated plants were 5.3% shorter than the control, while silver nanoparticle treated plant roots were 39.6% shorter than the control. The findings here could assist in the future development of new antibacterial products that cause less environmental toxicity after their intended use.

Effect of Different Nanoparticles on Seed Germination and Seedling Growth in Rice

“…Notebly, considering the different sizes, morphologies of NPs and differents plants species, the acquisition strategies of Fe elements as the nanoparticulates may not always effective [14]. In our study, Fe 2 O 3 NCs and Fe 2 O 3 SRs had no obvious effect on germination, but Fe 2 O 3 LRs inhibited this crucial index siginificantly.These interesting phenomenon seems can be largely due to the nanomaterials' morphologies.Recently it was reported that AgNPs have higher toxicity than AgNCs and AgNWs, which indicated the influence of nanomaterials on plants [15]. Xiang et.al found that ZnO hexagonal nanorod and ZnO nanocolumniation showed different bio-effect to Chinese cabbage seeds [16].…”

“…Xiang et.al found that ZnO hexagonal nanorod and ZnO nanocolumniation showed different bio-effect to Chinese cabbage seeds [16]. Different morphologies may affect dissolution, uptake, stability of nanomaterials [15], result into gene expression alteration [17], further affect plants growth. Our study demonstrated that Fe 2 O 3 long nanorods had higher toxicity on germination than Fe 2 O 3 nanocubes and Fe 2 O 3 short nanorods, but the machanism need to be further investigated.…”

Deformable and Transparent Ionic and Electronic Conductors for Soft Energy Devices

“…In addition, the safety issue that could arise from industrial use of nanomaterial-based conductors should be addressed. There are ongoing studies on the toxicity of the nanomaterials themselves [233][234][235][236] and potential exposure to nanomaterials as a result of them being released from products has been very recently investigated. [187] STICs can be promising candidates because most of the hydrogels are biocompatible and are conformal to human body parts, cells, and tissues down to the molecular scale.…”

Water-based binary polyol process for the controllable synthesis of silver nanoparticles inhibiting human and foodborne pathogenic bacteria

“…As a result, a wide spectrum of metallic and bimetallic nanoparticles, including Ag, Au, Fe, Co, Pt, Fe-Pt, and Au-Pd, have been extensively produced during the last two decades using this polyol technique. [3][4][5][6][7][8] In addition to ethylene glycol, low-molecular-weight polyethylene glycol melts (200-600 g mol À1 ) were also found to have the capacity to form silver nanoparticles.…”