Probabilistic modelling of prospective environmental concentrations of gold nanoparticles from medical applications as a basis for risk assessment

Background: The use of gold nanoparticles (Au-NP) based medical applications is rising due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Diagnostic devices based on Au-NP are already available in the market or are in clinical trials and Au-NP based therapeutics and theranostics (combined diagnostic and treatment modality) are in the research and development phase. Currently, no information on Au-NP consumption, material flows to and concentrations in the environment are available. Therefore, we estimated prospective maximal consumption of Au-NP from medical applications in the UK and US. We then modelled the Au-NP flows post-use and predicted their environmental concentrations. Furthermore, we assessed the environment risks of Au-NP by comparing the predicted environmental concentrations (PECs) with ecological threshold (PNEC) values. Results: The mean annual estimated consumption of Au-NP from medical applications is 540 kg for the UK and 2700 kg for the US. Among the modelled concentrations of Au-NP in environmental compartments, the mean annual PEC of Au-NP in sludge for both the UK and US was estimated at 124 and 145 μg kg −1 , respectively. The mean PEC in surface water was estimated at 468 and 4.7 pg L −1 , respectively for the UK and US. The NOEC value for the water compartment ranged from 0.12 up to 26,800 μg L −1 , with most values in the range of 1000 μg L −1 . Conclusion: The results using the current set of data indicate that the environmental risk from Au-NP used in nanomedicine in surface waters and from agricultural use of biosolids is minimal in the near future, especially because we have used a worst-case use assessment. More Au-NP toxicity studies are needed for the soil compartment.
Indrani Mahapatra
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Solution-Processable Singlet Fission Photovoltaic Devices

Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl503650a

Le Yang, Maxim Tabachnyk, Sam L. Bayliss, Marcus L. Böhm, Katharina Broch, Neil C. Greenham, Richard H. Friend and Bruno Ehrler

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Strain-Driven Mound Formation of Substrate under Epitaxial Nanoparticles

Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl502516y

Tanya Gupta, James B. Hannon, J. Tersoff, Rudolf M. Tromp, John A. Ott, John Bruley and Daniel A. Steingart

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Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl504459c

Ossama N. Assad, Nicolas Di Fiori, Allison H. Squires and Amit Meller

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ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn506262c

Qiang Chen, Wei-Li Li, Ya-Fan Zhao, Su-Yan Zhang, Han-Shi Hu, Hui Bai, Hai-Ru Li, Wen-Juan Tian, Hai-Gang Lu, Hua-Jin Zhai, Si-Dian Li, Jun Li and Lai-Sheng Wang

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ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn505644q

Keith E. Gregorczyk, Alexander C. Kozen, Xinyi Chen, Marshall A. Schroeder, Malachi Noked, Anyuan Cao, Liangbing Hu and Gary W. Rubloff

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Critical Role of Adsorption Equilibria on the Determination of Surface-Enhanced Raman Enhancement

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn5058936

Ashish Tripathi, Erik D. Emmons, Augustus W. Fountain, Jason A. Guicheteau, Martin Moskovits and Steven D. Christesen

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Size-Dependent Energy Levels of InSb Quantum Dots Measured by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn5061805

Tuo Wang, Roman Vaxenburg, Wenyong Liu, Sara M. Rupich, Efrat Lifshitz, Alexander L. Efros, Dmitri V. Talapin and S. J. Sibener

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Crystalline Mixed Phase (Anatase/Rutile) Mesoporous Titanium Dioxides for Visible Light Photocatalytic Activity

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm5035112

Zhu Luo, Altug S. Poyraz, Chung-Hao Kuo, Ran Miao, Yongtao Meng, Sheng-Yu Chen, Ting Jiang, Chelsea Wenos and Steven L. Suib

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Adsorption of 2-Chloroethyl Ethyl Sulfide on Silica: Binding Mechanism and Energy of a Bifunctional Hydrogen-Bond Acceptor at the Gas–Surface Interface

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp509516x

Joshua Abelard, Amanda R. Wilmsmeyer, Angela C. Edwards, Wesley O. Gordon, Erin M. Durke, Christopher J. Karwacki, Diego Troya and John R. Morris

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High-Pressure Photoinduced Synthesis of Polynitrogen in δ and ϵ Nitrogen Crystals Substitutionally Doped with CO

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp510228t

Matteo Ceppatelli, Marco Pagliai, Roberto Bini and Hans J. Jodl

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Optical and Electrochemical Applications of Silicon–Carbon Dots/Silicon Dioxide Nanocomposites

ACS Nano

DOI: 10.1021/nn504787y

Chung-Chien Shih, Po-Cheng Chen, Guan-Lin Lin, Chia-Wei Wang and Huan-Tsung Chang

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Monolayer Deposition of Bisphenol A Polycarbonate Oligomers on Au(111)

The Journal of Physical Chemistry C

DOI: 10.1021/jp506627d

René Gustus, Lienhard Wegewitz, Sascha Sedelmeier, Oliver Höfft, Jürgen Wieser, Matthias Rehahn, Frank Endres and Wolfgang Maus-Friedrichs

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Regioselective Plasmonic Coupling in Metamolecular Analogs of Benzene Derivatives

Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl503960s

Aiqin Fang, Sarah White, Prashant K. Jain and Francis P. Zamborini

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Analog Computing Using Reflective Plasmonic Metasurfaces

Nano Letters

DOI: 10.1021/nl5047297

Anders Pors, Michael G. Nielsen and Sergey I. Bozhevolnyi

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Linear Metal Chains in Ca2M2X (M = Pd, Pt; X = Al, Ge): Origin of the Pairwise Distortion and Its Role in the Structure Stability

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm503985h

Isa Doverbratt, Siméon Ponou, Yuemei Zhang, Sven Lidin and Gordon J. Miller

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Water-Stable Metal–Organic Frameworks for Fast and High Dichromate Trapping via Single-Crystal-to-Single-Crystal Ion Exchange

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm503767r

Hong-Ru Fu, Zhong-Xuan Xu and Jian Zhang

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ZnO as an Efficient Nucleating Agent for Rapid, Room Temperature Synthesis and Patterning of Zn-Based Metal–Organic Frameworks

Chemistry of Materials

DOI: 10.1021/cm502882a

Erika Zanchetta, Luca Malfatti, Raffaele Ricco, Mark J. Styles, Fabio Lisi, Campbell J. Coghlan, Christian J. Doonan, Anita J. Hill, Giovanna Brusatin and Paolo Falcaro

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