Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY
Volume 43, Issue 14, Pages 5257-5262Publisher
AMER CHEMICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1021/es900624s
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- United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.EPA) [RD 83334001]
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The expected rapid expansion of nanotechnology industries has raised concern over the environmental fate and effects of materials created by these industries, including carbon-based fullerenes. In this study, the reaction mechanism responsible for the photochemical transformation of aqueous C-60 clusters (nC(60)) in sunlight has been examined. Evidence is presented that under lamps that emit light only within the solar spectrum, O-1(2) is produced via aqueous nC(60) suspensions, using furfuryl alcohol (FFA) as all indicator. In air-equilibrated suspensions, the losses of 0.2 mM FFA and 0.8 mg/L C-60 were >90% and 70% after 15 h, while removing oxygen, the precursor of O-1(2), stopped both reactions, indicating that O-1(2) was produced and mediated nC(60) phototransformation. Similar reactions performed in deuterium oxide and with added azide ion resulted in accelerated and slowed loss of FFA, respectively, as expected if O-1(2) is a reaction intermediate. O-1(2) production (as measured by FFA loss) increased with time as more water-soluble intermediate products accumulated in solution. In summer sunlight (West Lafayette, IN, 86 degrees 55' W, 40 degrees 26' N), suspensions of 5 mg/L nC(60) produced O-1(2) concentrations 1 order of magnitude higher than the average value typically found in natural waters containing the same mass of natural organic carbon.
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