Transformation of C60 fullerene aggregates suspended and weathered under realistic environmental conditions

Abstract

The occurrence, fate and behaviour of carbon nanomaterials in the aquatic environment are dominated by their functionalization, association with organic material and aggregation behaviour. In particular, the degradation of fullerene aggregates in the aquatic environment is a primary influence on their mobility, sorption potential and toxicity. However, the degradation and kinetics of water suspensions of fullerenes remain poorly understood. In the present work, first, an analytical method based on liquid chromatography and high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) for the determination of C 60 fullerene and their environmental transformation products was developed. Secondly, a series of C 60 fullerene water suspensions were degraded under relevant environmental conditions, controlling the salinity, the humic substances content, the pH and the sunlight irradiation. Up to ten transformation products were tentatively identified, including epoxides and dimers with two C 60 units linked via one or two adjacent furane-like rings. Fullerenols were not observed under these environmentally relevant conditions. The kinetics of generation of each transformation product were studied with and without simulated sunlight conditions. The ionic strength of the media, its pH and the humic substances content were observed to modulate the kinetics of generation.

Bioconcentration and bioaccumulation of C60 fullerene and C60 epoxide in biofilms and freshwater snails (Radix sp.)

“…The behaviour of fullerenes in abiotic experiments C 60 fullerene and up to eleven of its TPs were included as target compounds (see Table 2), including eight epoxides ([6,6]C 60 O, three diepoxides, three triepoxides and one tetrapoxide) and three dimers (one monoxidised dimer and two dioxidized dimers). These TPs had been detected and identified in a previous work (Sanchís et al, 2018).…”

“…The instrumental method had been developed in a previous study (Sanchís et al, 2018). Briefly, 20 μL of extract were injected in each run into an Acquity UPLC System (Waters, Milford, USA) equipped with a COSMOSIL™ Buckyprep column (150 × 2.0 mm; 5 μm particle size) from Nacalai Tesque Inc. (Kyoto, Japan).…”

“…Later, Du et al (2016) assessed the bioaccumulation of hydroxylated fullerenes (fullerenols, dispersed by sonication) in D. magna. Sanchís et al (2018) recently quantified the residue of C 60 fullerene (dispersed by continued stirring) that remained in edible tissues of Mytilus galloprovincialis after 3 weeks of exposure to fullerenes at low ng/L concentrations. Nevertheless, the role of biofilms in the accumulation of fullerenes has never been assessed.…”

“…Given the high hydrophobicity and bactericidal properties of C 60 aggregates (Lyon et al, 2005), it is relevant to study their potential impact on the composition and viability of river biofilms (Freixa et al, 2018a(Freixa et al, , 2018b. The same can be extrapolated to fullerene environmental transformation products (TPs), such as fullerene epoxides and fullerene dimers, which are slowly produced when C 60 aggregates are dispersed in water media under environmentally relevant conditions (Sanchís et al, 2018).…”

Antagonistic Interactions between Benzo[a]pyrene and Fullerene (C60) in Toxicological Response of Marine Mussels

“…Quantification was performed by external calibration using authentic fullerene standards. Because of their lower concentrations, the tissue extracts were analysed by ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry following a protocol adapted from [34].…”