Uptake, Accumulation and Potential Toxic Effects of Gold Nanoparticles in Aquatic Plants: An Overview

Nanoparticles could be discharged into the aquatic ecosystem in many ways and cause serious problems to the aquatic fauna and flora. This chapter will critically discuss gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) in water ecosystems. More specifically, it gives emphasis on AuNPs bioavailability in surface waters, evaluates its chemical interactions with plants and their effects on plant growth and development especially on aquatic plants or macrophytes, as well as some final research recommendations and perspectives regarding this field. Scientific literature showed that AuNPs are more adsorbed on plants’ surface areas rather than being assimilated inside tissues. In addition, Gold speciation could be affected by several physicochemical characteristics of the water including pH, water hardness, dissolved organic carbon, conductivity, and could be transformed from metallic form to other oxidative forms. Once inside, gold nanoparticles could exert toxicity symptoms on plants. However, most toxicity studies are done on terrestrial plants and algae as mentioned in this chapter. Therefore, more research on toxicity and bioaccumulation studies is needed in order to find more about the fate and behavior of AuNPs in aquatic ecosystem.