Nanotechnology Now - News Story: Negligible Proportion Of Artificial Carbon-based Nanoparticles Found In Aquatic Sediments

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March 24th, 2009

Negligible Proportion Of Artificial Carbon-based Nanoparticles Found In Aquatic Sediments

Abstract:
The quantity of artificial carbon-based nanoparticles in lake and river-beds, originating from new products, is negligible compared to the concentration of natural carbon-based nanoparticles that are present in such beds. The accumulated particles in the sediments contain at least 10,000 times more natural nanoparticles than artificial ones. This result emerged from a model study conducted by researchers at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, Duke University in the USA and Empa in St. Gallen, Switzerland.

The research team, comprising Prof. Bart Koelmans of Wageningen University and colleagues from Duke University and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research (Empa), collected previous calculations about the emissions of nanoparticles and their concentrations in surface water in order to predict the sedimentation in lakes.

This would mean that the artificial carbon-based nanoparticles pose virtually no additional risk in comparison to the proportion of nanoparticles that are already present in sediments", explains Prof. Koelmans.

Source:
Science Daily

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