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Transformation of copper oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles in the soil and their accumulation by Hordeum sativum

Environmental Geochemistry and Health volume 43, pages 1655–1672 (2021)Cite this article

Abstract

In recent years, the study of the influence of nanoparticles (NPs) on the environment has attracted much interest as nanotechnology is becoming the key technology of the future generation. The comparative studies on the effects of macro- and nanosized copper oxide (CuO) on plants rarely cover the state and behaviour of CuO in the soil–plant system. This work considers the transformation of CuO in Haplic Chernozem depending on the degree of dispersion and its toxic effects on spring barley (Hordeum sativum) growth. To investigate the transformation of the studied particles of metal oxide in the soil and plant, both chemical method of analysis and synchrotron radiation X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopy (XANES) and X-ray absorption fine-structure spectroscopy (EXAFS) were used. It was shown that CuO NPs underwent a stronger transformation due to the high reactivity of smaller particles. The Cu mobility was observed to increase within the soil profile as confirmed by the model pollution experiment. This is mainly due to the formation of complex forms of metal with organic matter. A dose of 300 mg/kg of macro- and nanosized CuO did not significantly affect the development and productivity of spring barley. The effect of high doses of macro- and nanosized CuO (2000 and 10,000 mg/kg) had a negative impact on the growth of spring barley. The application of nanosized CuO had a greater toxic effect than the macrosized CuO on the plants. The XANES and EXAFS data revealed that CuO NPs accumulated in the soil and plants. The linear combination fit shown that Cu atoms, incorporated into the plants, have environment typical of CuO. This indicates a high environmental risk when soil is contaminated with CuO NPs compared with its arrival as CuO.

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Acknowledgements

The reported study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, no. 19-74-00085.

Funding

The Russian Science Foundation is acknowledged for providing funding in the project no.: 19–74-00085.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Southern Federal University, Rostov-on-Don, Russia, 344006

    Marina Burachevskaya, Tatiana Minkina, Saglara Mandzhieva, Tatiana Bauer, Dina Nevidomskaya, Victoria Shuvaeva, Svetlana Sushkova & Vishnu Rajput

  2. Ondokuz Mayıs University, Samsun, Turkey, 55080

    Ridvan Kizilkaya & Coşkun Gülser

Authors
  1. Marina Burachevskaya
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  2. Tatiana Minkina
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  3. Saglara Mandzhieva
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  4. Tatiana Bauer
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  5. Dina Nevidomskaya
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  6. Victoria Shuvaeva
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  7. Svetlana Sushkova
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  9. Coşkun Gülser
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  10. Vishnu Rajput
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Contributions

MB contributed to data curation, formal analysis, methodology, investigation, conceptualization, supervision, visualization, writing—original draft preparation—review and editing. TM, SM and TB helped in conceptualization, supervision, writing—review and editing. DN performed data curation, methodology, visualization, conceptualization, supervision, and writing—review and editing. VS done the investigation, data curation, visualization, formal analysis, writing—review and editing, and methodology. SS contributed to formal analysis, methodology, writing—review and editing. RK and CG helped in conceptualization and supervision. VR contributed to data curation, methodology, conceptualization, supervision, and writing—review and editing.

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Correspondence to Marina Burachevskaya.

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Burachevskaya, M., Minkina, T., Mandzhieva, S. et al. Transformation of copper oxide and copper oxide nanoparticles in the soil and their accumulation by Hordeum sativum. Environ Geochem Health 43, 1655–1672 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-00857-7

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Keywords

  • Haplic Chernozem
  • Macro- and nanosized CuO
  • XRD
  • XANES
  • EXAFS
  • Toxic effect