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Published on: May 26, 2017
Chronic toxicity of double-walled carbon nanotubes to three marine organisms: influence of different dispersion
Kevin W H Kwok1, Kenneth M Y Leung, Emmanuel Flahaut
1The Swire Institute of Marine Science, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong, PR China. kevin.kwok@duke.edu
Aim:
Double-walled carbon nanotubes (DWNTs) are found in a variety of consumer products, but there are no ecotoxicity data of DWNTs into marine organisms.
Materials & Methods:
Chronic toxicity of DWNTs was investigated with the diatom Thalassiosira pseudonana, copepod Tigriopus japonicus and medaka Oryzias melastigma. DWNTs were dispersed using sonication (so-DWNTs) and stirring (st-DWNTs) for comparison.
Results:
The median aggregation size (0.89 microm(2)) of so-DWNTs was smaller than that of st-DWNTs (21.8 microm(2)). Exposure to DWNTs led to growth inhibition of T. pseudonana with EC(50)s of 1.86 and 22.7 mg/l for so- and st-DWNTs, respectively. Population growth of T. japonicus was reduced to 0.1 mg/l for so-DWNTs and 10 mg/l for st-DWNTs. Growth inhibition in O. melastigma was observed at 10 mg/l for so-DWNTs but not for st-DWNTs.
Conclusion:
Given that so-DWNTs are consistently significantly more toxic than st-DWNTs, dispersion method and size of aggregations should be considered in DWNT toxicity testing.
