An informative short-term study on the impacts of a triclocarban/weathered multi-walled carbon nanotube-adsorbed complex to benthic organisms

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

Abstract

Freshwater organisms are suitable models to study the fate of environmental pollutants. Due to their versatile and everyday use, many environmental pollutants such as triclocarban (TCC) or multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) enter environmental compartments very easily. TCC is known as a disinfectant and is declared as a highly aquatic toxicant. Multi-walled carbon nanotubes are used, e.g., in the automotive industry to improve plastic properties. Both TCCs and MWCNTs can pose major pollution hazards to various organisms. In addition, these substances can bind to each other due to their tendency to interact via strong hydrophobic interactions. Therefore, a short-term test was conducted to investigate the effects of the individual chemicals TCC and weathered MWCNTs (wMWCNTs) on a benthic biofilm and a grazing organism, Lymnaea stagnalis. Furthermore, the two compounds were coupled by an adsorption experiment resulting in a coupled complex formation (TCC + wMWCNTs). L. stagnalis showed no effects in terms of mortality. For benthic biofilm, the coupling test (TCC + wMWCNTs) showed a decrease of 58% in chlorophyll a (Chl-a) concentration. The main effect could be attributed to the wMWCNTs’ exposure alone (decrease of 82%), but not to presence of TCC. The concentration range of Chl-a upon TCC exposure alone was comparable to that in the control group (32 and 37 µg/cm2). With respect to the particulate organic carbon (POC) concentration, very similar results were found for the solvent control, the TCC, and also for the TCC + wMWCNTs group (3, 2.9, and 2.9 mg/cm2). In contrast to the control, a significant increase in POC concentration (100%) was observed for wMWCNTs, but no synergistic effect of TCC + wMWCNTs was detected.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19917-19926
Number of pages10
JournalEnvironmental Science and Pollution Research
Volume31
Issue number13
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2024
Peer-reviewedYes

External IDs

PubMed 38368298
ORCID /0000-0002-9644-6095/work/161409118
ORCID /0000-0002-9301-1803/work/161409844

Keywords

Keywords

  • Adsorption, Benthic biofilm, L. stagnalis, Triclocarban, Weathered multi-walled carbon nanotubes, Water Pollutants, Chemical/analysis, Environmental Pollutants, Nanotubes, Carbon/chemistry, Carbanilides, Chlorophyll A