Silver Nanoparticles Research Paper

COULD NANOSILVER IN CONSUMER PRODUCTS AFFECT POND LIFE

TYBSc. LIFE SCIENCES
ROLL NO. 49
PAPER 4- ENVIRONMENTAL PROJECT
SEMESTER 6 UNIVERSITY SEAT NO –

INDEX

Sr. Pg. no 1. Abstract 2 2. Introduction 3 3. Materials 7 4. Procedure 8 5. Results 15 6. Discussion 16 7. Conclusion 20 8. References 21 9. Acknowledgement

Abstract

Do you know that many consumer products, such as sports clothes, cosmetics, and even food containers contain tiny silver particles? These so-called nanoparticles usually 1– 100 nanometers (a billionth of a meter) in size—are toxic to bacteria and fungi and therefore, are used to prevent them from growing on everyday items you use. But what happens if the silver nanoparticles

But did you know that silver can also be in your clothes, your sunscreen, or even your toothpaste? So why are these products not as shiny as coins, rings, or necklaces? The reason is that the silver particles contained in these products are so tiny that you do not see them. They are only 1–100 nanometers (nm) wide (1 nm is one billionth of a meter (m) long, or 1.0x10-9 m)—that is about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair! This is why they are also called nanoparticles. Nanoparticles can come in many different materials, sizes, or shapes, and all these features change how these particles behave. So why is there nanosilver, which when suspended in a liquid is also called colloidal silver, in consumer products? It turns out that silver does have a special property—it is antimicrobial, which means that it is toxic to bacteria and other microbes and prevents them from growing. This is why it is used to keep your clothes, sunscreen, or toothpaste free from

You will try both high concentrations and make dilutions (solution with weaker concentrations) to test how the daphnia react. Daphnids, are small freshwater organisms that are widely used for testing ecotoxicity. They are up to 5 mm in size and found around the world in most types of standing freshwater, such as ponds or lakes. They are good swimmers and mostly transparent, which makes it easy to assess their viability or if they are still alive.
Among the tested species Daphnia responds most sensitively and studies have revealed acute toxic effects in the low microgram per liter range. The low effect values obtained for daphnids are probably due to their filter-feeding strategy leading to an effective uptake of the nanoparticles.
Chronic exposure of daphnids to nanosilver results in negative effects on growth and reproduction . However, chronic exposure data are limited and cover exclusively a period of 21 days. To assess the environmental impact of nanosilver, long-term invertebrate exposures giving priority to effects at the population level provide useful completion. A useful approach to predict long-term effects on populations are multi-generation experiments that cover effects on neonate fitness.
We investigate if long-term exposure of several consecutive generations may alter the species’ sensitivity to