Pilot Estuarine Mesocosm Study on the Environmental Fate of Silver Nanomaterials Leached from Consumer Products

Published

January 10, 2012

Author(s)

Danielle Cleveland, Stephen E. Long, Paul L. Pennington, Emily Cooper, Michael H. Fulton, Geoffrey I. Scott, Elijah J. Petersen, Timothy M. Brewer, Jeffrey M. Davis, Laura J. Wood

Abstract

Although nanosilver consumer products (CPs) now enjoy widespread availability, little work has been done to determine the environmental fate and leaching of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from these products. This type of work is crucial, since the lifecycle of consumer products are such that they will end up in landfills or elsewhere in the environment. In this work, the leaching of silver from three silver standards and three CPs were studied in estuarine mesocosms. Measurements of total silver, by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), indicated that significant amounts of silver were leached from the CPs into the water column, and then transferred to other compartments, including snails and clams. Scanning electron microscopy was used to image seawater and biofilms that had been exposed to silver.

Citation

Environmental Science & Technology

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

engineered nanomaterials, consumer products, silver nanoparticles, estuarine mesocosm, ICP-MS, quantitative analysis, environmental fate and leaching

Citation

Cleveland, D. , Long, S. , Pennington, P. , , E. , Fulton, M. , Scott, G. , Petersen, E. , Brewer, T. , Davis, J. and Wood, L. (2012), Pilot Estuarine Mesocosm Study on the Environmental Fate of Silver Nanomaterials Leached from Consumer Products, Environmental Science & Technology (Accessed October 9, 2024)