Aquatic Toxicology paper for Xiaolin Chen

22 Feb 2016

Aquatic Toxicology paper for Xiaolin Chen Dr. Xiaolin Chen has a first paper on her PhD research in plant toxicology accepted for publication in the journal “Aquatic Toxicology”. The title of Xiaolin’s paper is “The toxicity of Zinc-Oxide nanoparticles to Lemna minor (L.) is predominantly caused by dissolved Zinc”. Xiaolin’s PhD study, in the plant stress group of Professor Marcel Jansen, investigated the role that dissolved zinc plays in causing Zinc-oxide nanoparticles (nano-ZnO) toxicity to the aquatic plant Lemna minor. Nano-ZnO dissolution was modulated by modifying the pH of the growth medium and/or the surface coating of nano-ZnO. It was concluded that dissolved zinc is primarily responsible for nano-ZnO toxicity, as phytotoxicity was either absent or reduced when dissolution of the nanoparticles was slowed down. One of the implications of this study is that the fate and toxicity of nano-ZnO released in the environment depends strongly on the pH of the water. Xiaolin's PhD project was jointly supervised by Prof. Marcel Jansen and Prof. John O’Halloran, and funded by the Chinese Scholarship Council. Xiaolin Chen graduated in the school of BEES, UCC, in 2015.