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Tier 2
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Original research — experimental, observational, or case-control study. Direct primary evidence.
Marine & Wildlife
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Fate and effects of graphene oxide alone and with sorbed benzo(a)pyrene in mussels Mytilus galloprovincialis
Journal of Hazardous Materials2023
10 citations
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Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count.
Score: 40
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0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Researchers exposed marine mussels to graphene oxide — a carbon-based nanomaterial increasingly used in consumer products — both alone and combined with benzo(a)pyrene, a common pollutant. They found that graphene oxide acts as a carrier that delivers the pollutant into mussel tissues, but also partially shields mussels from absorbing it, revealing that interactions between emerging nanomaterials and existing pollutants are complex and not simply additive.
Graphene oxide (GO) has gained a great scientific and economic interest due to its unique properties. As incorporation of GO in consumer products is rising, it is expected that GO will end up in oceans. Due to its high surface to volume ratio, GO can adsorb persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), and act as carrier of POPs, increasing their bioavailability to marine organisms. Thus, uptake and effects of GO in marine biota represent a major concern. This work aimed to assess the potential hazards of GO, alone or with sorbed BaP (GO+BaP), and BaP alone in marine mussels after 7 days of exposure. GO was detected through Raman spectroscopy in the lumen of the digestive tract and in feces of mussels exposed to GO and GO+BaP while BaP was bioaccumulated in mussels exposed to GO+BaP, but especially in those exposed to BaP. Overall, GO acted as a carrier of BaP to mussels but GO appeared to protect mussels towards BaP accumulation. Some effects observed in mussels exposed to GO+BaP were due to BaP carried onto GO nanoplatelets. Enhanced toxicity of GO+BaP with respect to GO and/or BaP or to controls were identified for other biological responses, demonstrating the complexity of interactions between GO and BaP.