A method for determination of retention of silver and cerium oxide manufactured nanoparticles in soils

Geert Cornelis; Jason K. Kirby; Douglas Beak; David Chittleborough; Mike J. McLaughlin

doi:10.1071/EN10013

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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A method for determination of retention of silver and cerium oxide manufactured nanoparticles in soils

Geert Cornelis ^A ^E , Jason K. Kirby ^B , Douglas Beak ^B ^D , David Chittleborough ^C and Mike J. McLaughlin ^A ^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A School of Food, Agriculture and Wine, University of Adelaide, PMB 1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia.

^B CSIRO Land and Water, Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research, Advanced Materials Transformational Capability Platform, PMB 2, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia. Email: jason.kirby@csiro.au; doug.beak@csiro.au; mike.mclaughlin@csiro.au

^C School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia. Email: david.chittleborough@adelaide.edu.au

^D Present address: US Environmental Protection Agency, National Risk Management Research Laboratory, 919 Kerr Research Drive, Ada, OK 74820, USA.

^E Corresponding author. Email: geert.cornelis@adelaide.edu.au

Environmental Chemistry 7(3) 298-308 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN10013
Submitted: 10 February 2010 Accepted: 14 April 2010 Published: 22 June 2010

Environmental context. Soils are the environmental compartment likely to be exposed most to manufactured nanoparticles, but there is no method available at present to assess their retention, which determines potential mobility and bioavailability. Optimisation and application of a method to determine retention values for silver (Ag) and cerium oxide (CeO₂) manufactured nanoparticles in soils found in many cases that they differed from the partitioning of their bulk and soluble counterparts. Wider application of this method can assist in comparing the risk of many different manufactured nanoparticles with other contaminants in soil systems and model their relationship to soil properties.

Abstract. Methods to study the retention of manufactured nanoparticles (MNP) are lacking for soils that are likely to be increasingly exposed to MNP. In this study we present, for the first time, a method to determine retention values (K_r) of Ag and CeO₂ MNP, that can be ranked among solid–liquid partitioning (K_d) values of bulk (micrometre-sized) forms, soluble salts and other possible contaminants of soils. After method optimisation, suspensions containing 1.24 mg kg^–1 Ag as Ag MNP and 1.30 mg kg^–1 Ce as CeO₂ MNP were added to five soils. More than 7% of Ag MNP occurred as soluble Ag^I after 24 h and the range of K_r values of Ag MNP (77–2165 L kg^–1) and CeO₂ MNP (1.1–2828 L kg^–1) contrasted with K_d values of soluble Ag^I, Ce^III and Ce^IV salts and bulk Ag and CeO₂ powders in different soils.

Additional keywords: K_d, K_r, partitioning, risk assessment, transport.

Acknowledgements

This work was partly funded by the Australian Government Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and the Australian Research Council (Discovery Project DP0879165). The US EPA has not subjected this manuscript to internal policy review. Therefore, the research results presented herein do not necessarily reflect Agency policy. Mention of trade names of commercial products and companies does not constitute endorsement or recommendation for use.

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