Titanium and zinc-containing nanoparticles in estuarine sediments: Occurrence and their environmental implications

Abstract Understanding the behavior and risk of nanoparticles (NPs) in the aquatic environment is currently limited by the lack of quantitative characterization of NPs in the environmental matrices, such as sediments. In this study, based on the single particle (SP)-ICP-MS technique, metal-containing NPs, including Ti- and Zn-containing NPs, were analyzed in sediments taken along the Yangtze Estuary. Combined with the traditional sequential extraction method that has been widely used for metal risk assessment, different single extraction methods were used to understand the association of NPs with different chemical fractions in sediments and their potential environmental implications. Ti-containing NPs, with an average size of 81 nm, ranged from 3.02 × 107 parts/mg to 9.61 × 107 parts/mg, and Zn-containing NPs, with an average size of 41 nm, ranged from 2.47 × 106 parts/mg to 1.21 × 107 parts/mg. Both correlation and redundancy analyses showed that particle concentrations of Ti-containing NPs in sediment were significantly correlated to the Ti-containing NPs in the residual fraction and salinity, indicating that Ti-containing NPs in sediments may be dominated by Ti-containing NPs in the residue fractions of sediments. Large amounts of these NPs may be released from the residual fraction that has been considered to be not bioavailable and “environmentally safe” in the traditional environmental risk assessment of metals in sediments. Zn-containing NPs, mostly associated with carbonates, were positively correlated to all the bioavailable fractions of Zn in sediments, suggesting that these NPs may be largely presented in the bioavailable fraction. This study showed that, vast numbers of NPs with minute sizes were present in estuarine sediments, and that they were associated with different chemical fractions with different potential environmental risks. The study findings call for further research to update the traditional risk assessment method.