engleski

Marine biopolymers and nanoparticles interaction

This study highlights the capacity of AFM for investigating nanoparticle (NP) algal cell interaction with a subnanometer resolution.We designed a set of AFM experiments in order to: (i) characterize the state of NPs in terms of size, shape and structure ; (ii) visualize changes in cellmorphology induced by NPs and (iii) characterize NP interaction with the extracellular polymers (EP), attached to the cells or released in the culture medium. In natural seawater used throughout this study the single Ag NPs adopted truncated tetrahedron morphology with particle heights of 10, 20, 30 and 40 nm. The EP production has been shown to increase as a feed-back response to Ag NP exposure and may contribute to detoxification mechanisms. Imaging EP at high resolution revealed the incorporation of Ag NPs and their aggregates into the EP-gelmatrix proving their detoxifying capacity. However, this nanospecific interaction (direct NP interaction with the EP polysaccharide component) could have significant environmental implications.

AFM; marine biopolymers; nanoparticles

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