Abstract
Fullerene C60 nanoparticles are being used in broad range of applications. It is important to assess their potential impacts in the environment. We evaluated the effects of C60 introduced as aqueous suspensions of nC60 aggregates of different particle size or via organic solvents on soils with different organic matter contents in this study. Impacts of the application were evaluated by measuring total microbial biomass, metabolic activity and bacterial community structure. Results show that nC60 aggregates, introduced as an aqueous suspension, had size-dependent effects on soil bacterial community composition in the low organic matter system, but induced minimal change in the microbial biomass and metabolic activity in soils with both high and low organic matter contents. Fullerene C60, co-introduced via an organic solvent, did not influence the response of soil microbes to the organic solvents. Our results suggest that nC60 aggregates of smaller size may have negative impact on soil biota and soil organic matter may play a key role in modulating the environmental effect of nanomaterials.
Highlights
The objective of this study was to examine the response of the soil bacterial community to the introduction of nC60 across a range of aggregate sizes, and C60 co-introduced in an organic solvent
Different sizes of nC60 aggregates can be produced by changing the rate of water addition to C60-saturated THF during the mixing process[8], where the particle size decreases as the rate of water addition is increased
The DGGE profiles were classified into two groups, one with samples treated with the two smaller sized nC60 aggregates, and the other group which was further grouped into two clusters with water control and THF residue (THF-R) control samples grouped together. These results demonstrate that nC60 aggregates have size-dependent effects on bacterial community structure in soils with low organic matter content
Summary
The objective of this study was to examine the response of the soil bacterial community to the introduction of nC60 across a range of aggregate sizes, and C60 co-introduced in an organic solvent. Different sized nC60 aggregates were made by adjusting the mixing rate and ratio of water to a C60-saturated tetrahydrofuran (THF) solution. Toluene and THF were selected because: 1) Toluene is a solvent commonly used in many industrial applications, and it finds use as a solvent to manipulate C60 as it can dissolve C60 at 2800 mg/L17; 2) THF is a water-miscible organic solvent with low boiling point (66 °C) that has been widely used to make water stable dispersions of C60 nanoparticles[8,18]. The effects of C60 on the response of soil microorganisms to toluene and THF were evaluated on soils with different organic matter contents. Results from this study may provide useful information to understand microbial response to C60 in environmental matrices
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