Physiological Homeostasis Alteration and Cellular Structure Damage of Chlorella Vulgaris Exposed to Silver Nanoparticles with Various Microstructure Morphologies

The toxicity of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with single morphology exposed to aquatic organisms had been well revealed in the past decade, but few studies have been carried out to evaluate the toxicity differences between AgNPs with various microstructure morphologies, especially to algae. In this work, Chlorella vulgaris was used as the tested organism to illustrate the differences of toxic effects between silver nanospheres (AgNSs), silver nanocubes (AgNCs) and silver nanoplates (AgPLs) with concentration of 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 5.0 mg⸳L -1 , based on the algae’s growth (72h), chlorophyll-a content, antioxidant enzyme activity, lipid peroxidation and cell apoptosis (48h). The results showed that the toxicity level exposed to Chlorella vulgaris was in the order of AgPLs> AgNCs> AgNSs. The difference shown indicated that the potential toxicity of AgNPs is primarily depended on their microstructure morphologies. This current study initially revealed the structure-effects of AgNPs on Chlorella vulgaris , provided a scientific basis for aquatic environmental risk assessment.