Abstract
Polyoxometalates (POMs) are metal oxo clusters that have been investigated for several applications in material sciences, catalysis, and biomedicine; these gained increasing interest in the field of nanotechnology as nanocarriers for drug delivery. Associated to the increasing applications, there is the need for information regarding the effects on the environment of these compounds, which is completely absent in the literature. In the present study, the effects of europium polyoxometalates encapsulated into silica nanoparticles (Eu-POM/SiO2 NPs) were assessed on the soil representative Enchytraeus crypticus. The individual materials were also assessed (Eu-POMs and SiO2 NPs). Toxicity was evaluated in various test media with increasing complexity: water, soil/water extracts, and soil. Toxicity was only observed for Eu-POM/SiO2 NPs and in the presence of soil components. Despite the fact that effects were observed for concentrations higher than current predicted environmental concentration (PEC), attention should be given to the growing use of these compounds. The present study shows the importance of assessing the effects in soil media, also compared to water. Moreover, results of “no effect” are critically needed and often unpublished. The present study can contribute to the improvement of the OECD guidelines for safety of manufactured nanomaterials on environmental toxicity in the soil compartment providing an improved test alternative.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ammam M (2013) Polyoxometalates: formation, structures, principal properties, main deposition methods and application in sensing. J Mater Chem A 1:6291–6312
Clément L, Zenerino A, Hurel C, Amigoni S, Taffin de Givenchy E, Guittard F, Marmier N (2013) Toxicity assessment of silica nanoparticles, functionalised silica nanoparticles, and HASE-grafted silica nanoparticles. Sci Total Environ 450-451:120–128
Coutris C, Joner EJ, Oughton DH (2012) Aging and soil organic matter content affect the fate of silver nanoparticles in soil. Sci Total Environ 420:327–333
Daima HK, Selvakannan PR, Shukla R, Bhargava SK, Bansal V (2013) Fine-tuning the antimicrobial profile of biocompatible gold nanoparticles by sequential surface functionalization using polyoxometalates and lysine. PLoS One 8:e79676
Fu L, Gao H, Yan M, Li S, Li X, Dai Z, Liu S (2015) Polyoxometalate-based organic-inorganic hybrids as antitumor drugs. Small 11:2938–2945
Gomes SIL, Caputo G, Pinna N, Scott-Fordsmand JJ, Amorim MJB (2015) Effect of 10 different TiO2 and ZrO2 (nano) materials on the soil invertebrate Enchytraeus crypticus. Environ Toxicol Chem 34:2409–2416
Granadeiro CM, Ferreira RAS, Soares-Santos PCR, Carlos LD, Trindade T, Nogueira HIS (2010) Lanthanopolyoxotungstates in silica nanoparticles: multi-wavelength photoluminescent core/shell materials. J Mater Chem 20:3313–3318
Hasenknopf B (2005) Polyoxometalates: introduction to a class of inorganic compounds and their biomedical applications. Front Biosci 10:275–287
Hill CL, Weeks MS, Schinazi RF (1990) Anti-HIV-1 activity, toxicity, and stability studies of representative structural families of polyoxometalates. J Med Chem 33:2767–2772
ISO (2004) ISO: 16387 Soil quality—effects of pollutants on Enchytraeidae (Enchytraeus sp.)—determination of effects on reproduction and survival. International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Geneva, Switzerland
Kang Z, Liu Y, Lee S-T (2011) Small-sized silicon nanoparticles: new nanolights and nanocatalysts. Nanoscale 3:777–791
Lee W-M, Ha S-W, Yang C-Y, Lee J-K, An Y-J (2011) Effect of fluorescent silica nanoparticles in embryo and larva of Oryzias latipes: sonic effect in nanoparticle dispersion. Chemosphere 82:451–459
Long D-L, Tsunashima R, Cronin L (2010) Polyoxometalates: building blocks for functional nanoscale systems. Angew Chem Int Ed 49:1736–1758
Ni L, Boudinot FD, Boudinot SG, Henson GW, Bossard GE, Martellucci SA, Ash PW, Fricker SP, Darkes MC, Theobald BR (1994) Pharmacokinetics of antiviral polyoxometalates in rats. Antimicrob Agents Ch 38:504–510
OECD (2004a) Test No. 202: guidelines for testing of chemicals—Daphnia sp. acute immobilisation test. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Publishing, Paris, France
OECD (2004b) Test No. 220: guidelines for testing of chemicals—enchytraeid reproduction test. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Publishing, Paris, France
OECD (2014) Ecotoxicology and environmental fate of manufactured nanomaterials: test guidelines. OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Publishing, Paris, France
Okun NM, Anderson TM, Hill CL (2003) [(FeIII(OH2)2)3(A-α-PW9O34)2]9− on cationic silica nanoparticles, a new type of material and efficient heterogeneous catalyst for aerobic oxidations. J Am Chem Soc 125:3194–3195
Okun NM, Ritorto MD, Anderson TM, Apkarian RP, Hill CL (2004) Polyoxometalates on cationic silica nanoparticles. Physicochemical properties of an electrostatically bound multi-iron catalyst. Chem Mater 16:2551–2558
Peacock RD, Weakley TJR (1971) Heteropolytungstate complexes of the lanthanide elements. Part I. Preparation and reactions. J Chem Soc A:1836–1839
Prudent R, Moucadel V, Laudet B, Barette C, Lafanechère L, Hasenknopf B, Li J, Bareyt S, Lacôte E, Thorimbert S, Malacria M, Gouzerh P, Cochet C (2008) Identification of polyoxometalates as nanomolar noncompetitive inhibitors of protein kinase CK2. Chem Biol 15:683–692
Roelofs F, Vogelsberger W (2004) Dissolution kinetics of synthetic amorphous silica in biological-like media and its theoretical description. J Phys Chem B 108:11308–11316
Römbke J, Knacker T (1989) Aquatic toxicity test for enchytraeids. Hydrobiologia 180:235–242
SigmaPlot (1997) Statistical package for the social sciences and SigmaPlot for windows, 11.0 ed. Chicago, IL, USA
Sousa JLC, Santos ICMS, Simões MMQ, Cavaleiro JAS, Nogueira HIS, Cavaleiro AMV (2011) Iron(III)-substituted polyoxotungstates immobilized on silica nanoparticles: novel oxidative heterogeneous catalysts. Catal Commun 12:459–463
Tourinho PS, van Gestel CAM, Lofts S, Svendsen C, Soares AMVM, Loureiro S (2012) Metal-based nanoparticles in soil: fate, behavior, and effects on soil invertebrates. Environ Toxicol Chem 31:1679–1692
Witvrouw M, Weigold H, Pannecouque C, Schols D, De Clercq E, Holan G (2000) Potent anti-HIV (type 1 and type 2) activity of polyoxometalates: structure-activity relationship and mechanism of action. J Med Chem 43:778–783
Xie B, Xu Z, Guo W, Li Q (2008) Impact of natural organic matter on the physicochemical properties of aqueous C60 nanoparticles. Environ Sci Technol 42:2853–2859
Yamase T (2005) Anti-tumor, -viral, and -bacterial activities of polyoxometalates for realizing an inorganic drug. J Mater Chem 15:4773
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the financial support of Center for Environmental and Marine Studies (CESAM) (UID/AMB/50017) and Aveiro Institute of Materials (CICECO) (FCT Ref. UID/CTM/50011/2013) project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007679, financed by national funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology/Minister of Science, Technology and Higher Education (FCT/MEC) and when appropriate co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) under the PT2020 Partnership Agreement, and FCT by a PhD grant to Rita Bicho (SFRH/BD/102702/2014).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Electronic supplementary material
ESM 1
(DOCX 945 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bicho, R.C., Soares, A.M., Nogueira, H.I. et al. Effects of europium polyoxometalate encapsulated in silica nanoparticles (nanocarriers) in soil invertebrates. J Nanopart Res 18, 360 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3662-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-016-3662-0