Model nanoparticles for environmental risk studies

纳米技术的迅速发展产生了大量的纳米粒子，其中许多已经在工业生产中。然而，工程纳米材料的环境行为目前尚不清楚，对人类健康和生物群的潜在危害是一个主要问题。几乎没有发表的纳米颗粒生态毒性研究，有限数量的人类毒性研究显示出相反的结果。这主要是由于纳米材料具有复杂的物理化学性质，这些性质与相同材料的本体性质不同，并且受到表面组成和粒度等因素的影响。因此，迫切需要更好地了解纳米材料的物理化学性质及其毒性效应，并由此制定标准（生态）毒性测试。了解生态风险将需要了解纳米材料在水环境中的暴露，水生实验介质和处于风险中的物种。现有的检测方法在范围上是有限的、昂贵的和/或复杂的。在开发出新的方法或传感器之前，检测纳米颗粒的生物暴露将是特别困难的;然而，了解暴露是了解纳米颗粒生态风险的第一步。为了促进纳米材料（生态）毒性的未来工作，拟议的研究旨在生成一组表征良好的纳米颗粒，这些纳米颗粒将显示出似乎影响（生态）毒性的特性范围。重点将放在两个金属纳米粒子，二氧化钛和氧化锌，这是被提议用于广泛的用途。我们的目标将是创造具有独特的富集稳定同位素比的金属纳米颗粒。因此，参考材料不仅要在物理化学上得到很好的表征，而且要合成为具有独特的同位素组成，这将使其在实验室和环境实验中可追溯。将使用富集的稳定同位素定量培养基和生物体中的浓度。这种工具的组合将允许生物吸收和颗粒特性之间的明确关系的评估;和明确的接触和生物体应力的措施之间的关系。将测试材料的反应性（溶解度、表面电荷、附聚），作为pH值、离子强度和模型水性介质（淡水和海水）中有机物存在的函数。Ecorisk将在海洋实验条件下进行评估（Corbula sp.）和淡水（Dreissena sp.）双壳类。

The rapid expansion of nanotechnologies has resulted in a vast array of nanoparticles, many of which are already in industrial production. However, the environmental behaviour of engineered nanomaterial is currently unknown and the potential to harm human health and biota is a major concern. There are virtually no published studies of nanoparticle ecotoxicity, and a limited number of human toxicity studies show contrasting results. This is mainly due to nanomaterials having complex physicochemical properties that vary from the bulk properties of the same materials and are governed by such factors as surface composition and particle size. There is therefore an urgent need to gain a better understanding of the physicochemical properties of nanomaterials and their toxic effects, and from this to develop standard (eco)toxicity tests. Understanding ecological risks will require understanding exposure to nanomaterial in the water environment, in aquatic experimental media and within species that are at risk. Existing detection methods are limited in scope, expensive and/or complex. Detecting biological exposures to nanoparticles will be especially problematic until new methods or sensors are developed; yet understanding exposure is the first step in understanding ecological risks from nanoparticles. To facilitate future work on nanomaterial (eco)toxicity, the proposed study aims to generate a set of well characterised nanoparticles that will show the range of properties that appear to influence (eco)toxicity. The focus will be on two metallo-nanoparticles, TiO2 and ZnO, which are being proposed for a wide number of uses. The goal will be to create metallo-nanoparticles with unique enriched stable isotope ratios. Thus the reference material will not only be well characterised physicochemically, but also synthesised to have distinct isotopic composition which will make it traceable in both laboratory and environmental experiments. Concentrations in media and in organisms will be quantified using the enriched stable isotope. This combination of tools will allow the assesment of unambiguous relationships between bio-uptake and particle characteristics; and unambiguous relationships between exposure and measures of organism stress. The material will be tested for its reactivity (solubility, surface charge, agglomeration) as a function of pH, ionic strength and the presence of organic matter in model aqueous media (fresh water and seawater). Ecorisk will be assessed under experimental conditions on a marine (Corbula sp.) and a freshwater (Dreissena sp.) bivalve.