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The role of charged polymer coatings of nanoparticles on the speciation and fate of metal ions in the environment

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Abstract

Determining the environmental risk of metals requires an in-depth understanding of the environmental matrices composition, which currently also includes the presence of manufactured metallic nanoparticles (NPs) usually, stabilized by a polymer surface coating. As a consequence, is necessary to take into account effects of the NP core, the polymer surface coating and their mutual interaction as well as with other environmental components. The release of metal ions from metallic NPs is a well-known outcome, however, the effect of the presence of the NP polymer coating in the NPs solubilization mechanism is not well understood. In this study the dynamic speciation of Cd and Pb in presence of a polyacrylic acid (PAA)-stabilized CdTe/CdS NP was quantified by scanned stripping chronopotentiometry (SSCP). It was found that although the NP solubility was 5.8× larger at pH 8.5 than at pH 6.0, the amount of free Cd ions was much smaller (2.4 % at pH 8.5 vs. 57 % at pH 6.0). The concentration of free Cd and Pb ions in solution was larger in presence of the PAA-shells than when in presence of the same amount of polymer but when this is at the surface of the NP. This effect is attributed to the metal ions interaction with the particle itself. The effect is notably larger for Pb ions and might results from the exchange of Cd by Pb ions at the particle surface since PbS is less soluble than CdS.

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Acknowledgments

Funding for this work was provided by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), Portugal: Science 2008 IST-CQE3 “Environmental Chemistry” Assistant Researcher position to RFD and Project PTDC/AAC-AMB/111998/2009. JPP acknowledges the FCT funding support: Project Pest-OE/EQB/LA0023/2013.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centro de Química Estrutural, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Torre Sul lab 11-6.3, Av. Rovisco Pais # 1, 1049-001, Lisbon, Portugal

    Rute F. Domingos & Cristiana Franco

  2. Centro de Biomedicina Molecular Estrutural CBME/IBB, LA, Universidade do Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139, Faro, Portugal

    José P. Pinheiro

Authors
  1. Rute F. Domingos
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  2. Cristiana Franco
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  3. José P. Pinheiro
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Correspondence to Rute F. Domingos.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Domingos, R.F., Franco, C. & Pinheiro, J.P. The role of charged polymer coatings of nanoparticles on the speciation and fate of metal ions in the environment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 2900–2906 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3546-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3546-8

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