Document Type

Theses, Masters

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

1. NATURAL SCIENCES

Publication Details

Thesis submitted for the award of MPhil to Technological University Dublin, February 2015.

Abstract

The presented body of work is submitted for examination to the degree of Masters of Philosophy, (MPhil). The objective of the overall project is to assess the potential risks associated with engineered nanoparticles in the aquatic environment. The current study assesses the potential toxic effects of C60 and CB with a range of ecotoxicological end points. The tests employed here include cytotoxicological assessment using two end-points; the Alamar Blue Assay and the Neutral Red Assay on two fish cell lines; PLHC-1 and RTG2. Growth Inhibition of algae Pseudokirchneriella subcapitata, OECD test 201, acute toxicity test of the crustacean Thamnocephalus platyurus, acute immobilization test with the invertebrate Daphnia magna, as well as the toxicity assessment of the luminescent bacteria vibrio fischeri using the Microtox test. A series of methods were also employed to initially characterise the test particles, necessary to obtain as much information as possible before exposing the particle to the test systems, in order to ensure results obtained are true values of toxicity and not dependant on external parameters. No significant toxicity was recorded in the cytotoxicological studies, in the algal assessment, Daphnia study and Thamnocephalus test; this suggests that C60 does not pose as an ecotoxicological threat to these species. Toxicity was observed for CB in the Daphnia and Thamnocephalus studies. A concentration range of 0-833ppm of each particle was assessed with the Microtox test, an EC50 after 30 minutes exposure to the bacteria of 467.33ppm and 119.03ppm for C60 and CB respectively were obtained. For the Daphnia magna test concentration ranges of 0-1000ppm and 0-120ppm were assessed for C60 and CB respectivbely, results were inconclusive for C60, an average EC50 of 15.11ppm was determined for CB after 48 hours exposure. All results are discussed and future work recommendations are made.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/D7CK5C

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