Transfer of gold nanoparticles from the water column to the estuarine food web

John L. Ferry, Preston Craig, Cole Hexel, Patrick Sisco, Rebecca Frey, Paul L. Pennington, Michael H. Fulton, I. Geoff Scott, Alan W. Decho, Shosaku Kashiwada, Catherine J. Murphy, Timothy J. Shaw

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

307 Scopus citations

Abstract

Within the next five years the manufacture of large quantities of nanomaterials may lead to unintended contamination of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. The unique physical, chemical and electronic properties of nanomaterials allow new modes of interaction with environmental systems that can have unexpected impacts. Here, we show that gold nanorods can readily pass from the water column to the marine food web in three laboratory-constructed estuarine mesocosms containing sea water, sediment, sea grass, microbes, biofilms, snails, clams, shrimp and fish. A single dose of gold nanorods (65nm length×15nm diameter) was added to each mesocosm and their distribution in the aqueous and sediment phases monitored over 12 days. Nanorods partitioned between biofilms, sediments, plants, animals and sea water with a recovery of 84.4%. Clams and biofilms accumulated the most nanoparticles on a per mass basis, suggesting that gold nanorods can readily pass from the water column to the marine food web.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)441-444
Number of pages4
JournalNature Nanotechnology
Volume4
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2009
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was supported by the University of South Carolina Nanocenter.

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