A simple sensing of hazardous photo-induced superoxide anion radicals using a molecular probe in ZnO-Nanoparticles aqueous medium

Henry Agbe; Nadeem Raza; David Dodoo-Arhin; R Vasant Kumar; Ki-Hyun Kim

doi:10.1016/j.envres.2019.03.062

A simple sensing of hazardous photo-induced superoxide anion radicals using a molecular probe in ZnO-Nanoparticles aqueous medium

Environ Res. 2019 Sep:176:108424. doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.03.062. Epub 2019 Mar 28.

Authors

Henry Agbe¹, Nadeem Raza², David Dodoo-Arhin³, R Vasant Kumar¹, Ki-Hyun Kim⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0FS, UK.
² Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy, University of Cambridge, 27 Charles Babbage Road, Cambridge, CB3 0FS, UK; Govt. Emerson College Affiliated with Bahauddin Zakariya University Multan, Pakistan. Electronic address: nadeemr8@hotmail.com.
³ Department of Materials Science & Engineering, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 77, Legon-Accra, Ghana; Institute of Applied Science and Technology, University of Ghana, P. O. Box LG 25, Legon-Accra, Ghana.
⁴ Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Hanyang University, Seoul, 04763, South Korea. Electronic address: kkim61@hanyang.ac.kr.

PMID: 31229777
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2019.03.062

Abstract

The generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) during the photolysis of sunscreens and sun blockers poses consumer safety concerns while necessitating proper identification and quantitation of ROS species. Here, a colorimetric sensing approach has been developed based on a molecular probe (2,3-bis-(2-methoxy-4-nitro-5-sulfophenyl)-2-H-tetrazolium-5-carboxanilide (XTT) tetrazolium salt) to quantitatively measure the photo-induced superoxide anion radicals (O₂^.) generated from the photocatalysis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) in aqueous solutions. Note that superoxide anion radicals are assumed to be the main reactive oxygen species (ROS) generated from such photocatalysis. The characterisation of ZnO-NPs before and after irradiation showed average particle sizes of 616.5 and 295.3 nm and ζ-potential values of 0 and -24.4 mV, respectively. It is hoped that this proposed protocol can be further developed to efficiently detect other ROS present in inorganic sun blockers and to optimize the utility of various sunscreen formulations.

Keywords: Molecular probe; Photocatalysis; Reactive oxygen species; Superoxide anion radicals; XTT tetrazolium salt; ZnO-NPs.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Cell Survival
Environmental Monitoring
Metal Nanoparticles* / analysis
Molecular Probes
Nanoparticles*
Reactive Oxygen Species
Superoxides
Zinc Oxide*

Substances

Molecular Probes
Reactive Oxygen Species
Superoxides
Zinc Oxide