Effect of citric acid on toxicity of graphene towards freshwater algae (Chlorella pyrenoidosa)

摘要

With the increasing in production and application, graphene will inevitable be released into the aquatic environment and have impacts on aquatic organisms. In this work, we investigated the toxicity of graphene to algal cells (Chlorella pyrenoidosa) in the presence of dissolved organic matter. The results showed that the toxicity of graphene is concentration dependent, and the median effective concentration (EC_(50)) at 96 h was 41.35 mg/L. In addition, the toxicity was significantly reduced by citric acid (CA), as a type of dissolved organic matter. The alleviated toxicity of CA was concentration dependent. This finding could provide useful data for assessing the environmental risk of graphene.