Caracterización y transformación de nanopartículas metálicas y de metaloides en muestras biológicas y medioambientales

Abstract

Nanotechnology, and particularly metal and metalloid nanoparticles, have proven to be very useful in applications related to health, the environment, technology, and food. However, their release into the environment throughout their use cycle may constitute a potential and poorly known risk to health, the environment, and even the ecosystems.Once nanoparticles reach the environment and interact with surrounding chemicals or biological systems, they can undergo modifications in their physicochemical properties (size, morphology, state of aggregation, surface charge, dissolution processes or transformation to other chemical species of the same element). All this will undoubtedly affect their final fate and impact on ecosystems. In this sense, Analytical Chemistry plays a key role in establishing these transformations, through the development of new strategies and/or the adaptation and combination of existing techniques and methods. This Doctoral Thesis entitled "Characterization and transformation of metallic and metalloid nanoparticles in biological and environmental samples" addresses this problem by developing analytical methodologies to characterize and study the transformations that metallic silver (AgNPs) and gold (AuNPs) nanoparticles undergo when they are exposed to environmental samples of different nature, and selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) when interacting with biological systems such as plants and bacteria...