Perez Franklin, Cho Yuan Horne, Setio Thomas Sidarta, Yu Dian, Jia Charles Q, Howe Jane, Sullan Ruby May Arana
Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough 1065 Military Trail Toronto ON Canada
Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto 200 College St Toronto ON Canada.
RSC Adv. 2025 Aug 18;15(35):29003-29012. doi: 10.1039/d5ra02482j. eCollection 2025 Aug 11.
Nanoplastics are emerging environmental pollutants that threaten soil microbial communities, especially plant growth-promoting bacteria. Here, we investigate whether sugar maple biochar-widely recognized for its soil amendment benefits-can reduce nanoplastic toxicity. Using confocal microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and fluorescence spectroscopy, we characterized the interactions between biochar and nanoplastics and observed extensive nanoplastic aggregation on biochar surfaces. Pre-conditioning nanoplastics with biochar (, allowing nanoplastics to interact with biochar before bacterial exposure) lowered their effective concentration in solution and reduced surface coverage on bacterial cells. Growth assays confirmed that biochar pre-conditioning improved both planktonic and biofilm growth of , a plant growth-promoting bacteria, at nanoplastic concentrations up to 100 μg mL. Our results highlight biochar's potential to sequester nanoplastics and mitigate their toxicity, offering a sustainable strategy for protecting microbial communities in plastic-contaminated soils.
纳米塑料是新出现的环境污染物，威胁着土壤微生物群落，尤其是促进植物生长的细菌。在此，我们研究了因土壤改良效益而广受认可的糖枫生物炭是否能降低纳米塑料的毒性。我们使用共聚焦显微镜、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和荧光光谱法，对生物炭与纳米塑料之间的相互作用进行了表征，并观察到纳米塑料在生物炭表面大量聚集。用生物炭对纳米塑料进行预处理（即在细菌接触之前让纳米塑料与生物炭相互作用）降低了其在溶液中的有效浓度，并减少了在细菌细胞上的表面覆盖。生长试验证实，在纳米塑料浓度高达100μg/mL时，生物炭预处理改善了促进植物生长的细菌——的浮游生长和生物膜生长。我们的研究结果凸显了生物炭螯合纳米塑料并减轻其毒性的潜力，为保护受塑料污染土壤中的微生物群落提供了一种可持续策略。
