28th Aug. - 1st Sept. 2016: 13th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry Conference (EuroBIC 13)

[Z. Klencsar]

The 13th European Biological Inorganic Chemistry (EuroBIC 13) Conference (http://www.eurobic13.mke.org.hu/) was held in between 28 August and 1 September, 2016, at the Loránd Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary. On the conference Zoltán Klencsár presented a poster with the title "Iron-based nanoparticles and their effects on plants: outlook and first results" including an overview of our research project along with our first results concerning cucumber plant-growth experiments where iron(III)-oxihydroxide and Fe-Co alloy nanoparticles were applied. The corresponding abstract can be read below, whereas the displayed poster can be downloaded from this link:

http://www.esr.hu/plantnano/posters/2016_eurobic13.pdf

Iron-based nanoparticles and their effects on plants: outlook and first results

Zoltán Klencsár1; Gyula Tolnai1; Zoltán Sándor1; Zoltán May1; Ervin Gy. Szabó1; Péter Németh1; László Szabó1; Krisztina Kovács2; Ernő Kuzmann2; Zoltán Homonnay2; Fruzsina Pankaczi3; Zita Fülöp3; Zsuzsanna Farkas3; Edit Ludmerszki3; Ádám Solti3; Ferenc Fodor3

1 Institute of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Magyar tudósok körútja 2, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
2 Institute of Chemistry, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, 1117 Budapest, Hungary
3 Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, Pázmány P. s. 1/A, 1117 Budapest, Hungary

z.klencsar@esr.hu

On account of their diverse and peculiar physicochemical properties, the magnitude and importance of production and industrial utilization of manufactured nanoparticles (MNPs) has been increasing rapidly in recent years [1]. According to global estimates [2], the total worldwide production of nanomaterials exceeded the order of 10^5 t/year already in 2012. It is inevitable that a considerable fraction of the produced nanoparticles will finally find its way from the industry and consumer products to different environmental compartments such as air, water and soil [3]. Despite growing concerns regarding the environmental risks of MNPs, as of today, knowledge about their transport, possible transformations, final fate and concentration in the ecosystems is scarce [3]. Even more alarming is the lack of comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the nature and mechanisms of the effects of MNPs on their possible host ecosystems and the associated living organisms such as algae, plants, and fungi, which are expected to be affected by an exposure to MNPs [4].

Suitable MNPs may also be expected to serve as nutrient reservoirs in their host ecosystem, thereby realizing a possibly favorable effect. The healthy growth and physiological activity of plants, for example, require a sufficient supply of iron that is one of the most important transition metal plant nutrients. Controlled exposure to selected iron-containing nanoparticles may therefore also turn out to be beneficial to ecosystems involving plants.

We have prepared iron(III) oxide-hydroxide and iron-cobalt alloy nanoparticles and applied a wide range of experimental techniques (XRD, TEM, SEM, EDX spectroscopy, ICP-MS/OES, EPR/FMR as well as 57Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy) in order to perform their morphological, structural and magnetic characterization, as well as to explore their effects on plants via controlled plant-growth experiments. Our results reveal that iron(III) oxide-hydroxide and Fe-Co alloy nanoparticles are both able to influence the quality and productivity of cucumber plants grown in hydroponics, the effects being essentially favorable when iron(III) oxide-hydroxide and essentially toxic when Fe-Co alloy nanoparticles are administered to the plant.

Financial support from the National Research, Development and Innovation Office - NKFIH/OTKA (K115913 and K115784) is gratefully acknowledged.

[1] A. Bour, F. Mouchet, J. Silvestre, L. Gauthier, E. Pinelli, Journal of Hazardous Materials 283 (2015) 764.
[2] F. Piccinno, F. Gottschalk, S. Seeger, B. Nowack, J. Nanopart. Res. 14 (2012) 1109.
[3] J.D. Posner, Nano Today 4 (2009) 114.
[4] E. Navarro, A. Baun, R. Behra, N.B. Hartmann, J. Filser, A. Miao, A. Quigg, P.H. Santschi, L. Sigg, Ecotoxicology 17 (2008) 372.