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The combined toxicity and mechanism of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and nano zinc oxide toward the cabbage

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Abstract

The natural environment is a complex system, and there is never only one kind of nanomaterial entering the environment. However, many studies only considered the plant toxicity of one kind of nanomaterial and do not consider the influence of two or more kinds of nanomaterials on plant toxicity. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are two common and widely used nanomaterials in water environment, so these two kinds of nanomaterials were chosen to explore the effects of their combined toxicity on cabbage. This study investigated the toxicity of MWCNTs combined with ZnO NPs on cabbage by measuring the length of roots and stems, chlorophyll content, oxidative stress, antioxidant enzyme activity, metal element content, and root scanning electron microscopy. The toxicity of single MWCNTs toward cabbage was attributed to direct oxidative damage, while the toxicity of single ZnO NPs toward cabbage was due to the high level of zinc concentration. Moreover, ZnO NPs (10 mg/L) ameliorated MWCNTs toxicity toward cabbage by improving the activity of antioxidant enzymes. ZnO NPs (50 and 100 mg/L) because of the high content of zinc disrupted the balance of other metals in the plant and increased the toxicity of MWCNTs. In conclusion, the combined toxicity of different concentrations and types of nanomaterials should be considered for a more accurate assessment of environmental risks.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial supports from National Natural Science Foundation of China (51521006, 51579095, 51378190), Ecology and Environment Department of Hunan, the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-13R17).

Funding

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51521006, 51579095, 51378190), Ecology and Environment Department of Hunan, the Program for Changjiang Scholars and Innovative Research Team in University (IRT-13R17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Environmental Biology and Pollution Control (Hunan University), Ministry of Education, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, People’s Republic of China

    Mo Hong, Ji-Lai Gong, Wei-Cheng Cao, Rong Fang & Wang-Wang Tang

  2. Hunan Qing Zhi Yuan Environmental Protection Technology Co., Ltd, Changsha, 410082, People’s Republic of China

    Zhe Cai & Jun Ye

  3. State Key Laboratory for Chemo/Biosensing and Chemometrics, College of chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Hunan University, Changsha, 410082, People’s Republic of China

    Zeng-Ping Chen

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  1. Mo Hong
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  2. Ji-Lai Gong
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  3. Wei-Cheng Cao
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  4. Rong Fang
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  5. Zhe Cai
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  6. Jun Ye
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  7. Zeng-Ping Chen
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  8. Wang-Wang Tang
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Contributions

MH: data curation, methodology, and writing—original draft preparation

J-LG: conceptualization, writing—review and editing

W-CC: conceptualization and supervision

RF: supervision

ZC: resources

JY: software and resources

Z-PC: formal analysis

W-WT: resources

All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Ji-Lai Gong or Wang-Wang Tang.

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Hong, ., Gong, JL., Cao, WC. et al. The combined toxicity and mechanism of multi-walled carbon nanotubes and nano zinc oxide toward the cabbage. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 3540–3554 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-15857-4

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