Influences of petroleum hydrocarbon pyrene on the formation, stability and antibacterial activity of natural Au nanoparticles

Zhang Li; Jing Wan; Yibo Zhang; Chenyuan Dang; Fei Pan; Jie Fu

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148813

Influences of petroleum hydrocarbon pyrene on the formation, stability and antibacterial activity of natural Au nanoparticles

Sci Total Environ. 2021 Nov 15:795:148813. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148813. Epub 2021 Jul 3.

Authors

Zhang Li¹, Jing Wan¹, Yibo Zhang¹, Chenyuan Dang¹, Fei Pan², Jie Fu³

Affiliations

¹ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China.
² School of Environmental Engineering, Wuhan Textile University, Engineering Research Centre for Clean Production of Textile Dyeing and Printing, Ministry of Education, Wuhan 430073, China. Electronic address: fpan@wtu.edu.cn.
³ School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China. Electronic address: jiefu@hust.edu.cn.

PMID: 34246134
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.148813

Abstract

The effect of pyrene on the formation of naturally Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) in the presence of humic acid (HA) under UV irradiation is described. TEM, EDS, FTIR and XPS were carried out to prove the formation of AuNPs and display their morphologies and formation mechanism. There are little differences between size, morphology and function groups of surface coated materials of AuNPs formed with and without pyrene. With the presence of HA, pyrene showed an inhibiting effect on the reduction of Au ion via competition for O₂^•-, thereby decreasing the production of AuNPs. However, AuNPs formed by HA-pyrene showed higher stability than AuNPs formed by HA with the sedimentation rates of 4.13% and 13.68% respectively after 30-d standing. As for the antibacterial activities against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, AuNPs formed by HA-pyrene were more toxic than AuNPs formed by HA. Meanwhile, changes of environmental factors such as temperature, pH and ionic strength exhibited similar influence trend on the formation of AuNPs in the presence and absence of pyrene. The results suggest that the typical petroleum hydrocarbon pyrene contained in spilled oil could influence the formation, fate and ecotoxicity of AuNPs.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity; Formation; Natural Au nanoparticles; Pyrene; Stability.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / toxicity
Gold
Metal Nanoparticles* / toxicity
Petroleum* / toxicity
Pyrenes / toxicity

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Petroleum
Pyrenes
Gold