Biosafety evaluation of nanoscaled porous energy materials

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-1-2015

Abstract

The broad concerns related to energy materials are end-of-life effects in the environment and human health due to a possible seepage of catalytic components into the water table. The biosafety aspects of catalysts or other components, such as noble metal nanoparticles (NPs), metal oxides NPs and metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), were investigated to determine performance benchmarks. Toxicity study on microorganism indicated that metal-oxide (TiO2, Ag-TiO2) and MOFs are more toxic than noble metal (Ag) NPs. Additionally, study on human cells of porous materials indicated possible toxicity. The mechanism of microbial cell death was due to degradation of macromolecules and leakage of cellular potassium ions. In contrast, human cells were damaged by oxidative stress of the plasma membrane and depolarization of the mitochondrial membrane potential.

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