Impacts of dissolved organic matter on aqueous behavior of nano/micron-titanium nitride and their induced enzymatic/non-enzymatic antioxidant activities in Scenedesmus obliquus

ABSTRACT

Freshwater dispersion stability and ecotoxicological effects of titanium nitride (TiN) with particle size of 20 nm, 50 nm, and 2–10 μm in the presence of dissolved organic matter (DOM) at various concentrations were studied. The TiN particles that had a more negative zeta potential and smaller hydrodynamic size showed more stable dispersion in an aqueous medium when DOM was present than when DOM was absent. Biochemical assays indicated that relative to the control, the TiN particles in the presence of DOM alleviated to some extent the antioxidative stress enzyme activity in Scenedesmus obliquus. In addition, it was found that the TiN with a primary size of 50 nm at a high concentration presented a significant impact on non-enzymatic antioxidant defense in algal cells.

KEYWORDS:

• Antioxidative defense
• behavior
• dissolved organic matter
• nanoparticles
• titanium nitride

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 21407080) and the Foundation Research Project of Jiangsu Province (Nos. BK20140987 and BK20150891).