Effects of salinity on the toxicity of ionic silver and Ag-PVP nanoparticles to Tisbe battagliai and Ceramium tenuicorne.

Ailbhe Macken, Hugh J Byrne, Kevin V Thomas

Focas Research Institute, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin 8, Ireland. ama@niva.no

Ecotoxicology and environmental safety 2012 Dec

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The toxic effects of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) coated silver nanoparticles (Ag-NP(PVP)) and ionic Ag, to Tisbe battagliai (Tb) and Ceramium tenuicorne (Ct) were investigated and the usefulness of standardised marine guidelines for ENP risk assessment were assessed. The toxicity of Ag-NP(PVP) [CtEC(50)=26.6μg/L, TbEC(50)=7.9μg/L] and Ag(+) [CtEC(50)=2312.2μg/L, Tb EC(50)=90.9μg/L] to both test species differed, with the silver ENPs being more toxic. In contrast to Ag(+) the toxicity of Ag-NP(PVP) increased significantly with increasing salinity, however, after thorough characterisation it was not possible to correlate the behaviour of the particles with an increase in toxicity and salinity. The results suggest that the observed toxicity is being elicited by the free ionic silver complexing in solution and also from an unknown potential particle related effect. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Ailbhe Macken, Hugh J Byrne, Kevin V Thomas. Effects of salinity on the toxicity of ionic silver and Ag-PVP nanoparticles to Tisbe battagliai and Ceramium tenuicorne. Ecotoxicology and environmental safety. 2012 Dec;86:101-10