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Nanopolystyrene size effect and its combined acute toxicity with halogenated PAHs on Daphnia magna

The Science of The Total Environment 2023 10 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 50 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Qing Sun, Yuting Yang, Zi-Yi Zheng, Hong‐Gang Ni

Summary

Researchers tested how nanopolystyrene particle size affects toxicity to Daphnia magna water fleas alone and in combination with halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, finding smaller particles (30 nm) were far more toxic than larger ones (1 µm) and that the plastic-chemical mixtures showed antagonistic effects — reducing combined toxicity below what either contaminant caused alone.

Nanoplastics (NPs, diameter <1 μm) not only have toxicity but also change the toxicity of other pollutants in water. To date, the nanopolystyrene (nano-PS) size effect and its combined toxicity with halogenated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (HPAHs) remain unclear. In this study, the single toxicity, combined toxicity, and mode of action of the binary mixture of polystyrene (PS) and HPAH were examined. At the same time, the nano-PS size effect on combined toxicity was also discussed. According to our results, the 48 h acute toxicity test results showed that 30 nm PS was highly toxic (EC-48 h = 1.65 mg/L), 200 nm PS was moderately toxic (EC-48 h = 17.8 mg/L), and 1 μm PS was lowly toxic (EC-48 h = 189 mg/L). The NP toxicity decreased with increasing size. HPAHs were highly toxic substances to Daphnia magna (EC-48 h = 0.12-0.22 mg/L). The mode of action of PS and HPAHs was antagonistic according to the toxicity unit method (TU), additive index method (AI), and mixture toxicity index method (MTI). The size effect of nano-PS operates via two mechanisms: the inherent toxicity of nano-PS and the sorption of pollutants by nano-PS. The former impacts the combined toxicity more than the latter. In the binary mixed system, the larger the particle size and the higher the proportion of NPs in the system, the less toxic the system was. Linear interpolation analysis can be used to predict the combined toxicity of a mixed system with any mixing ratio.

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