Nanoparticles-EPS corona increases the accumulation of heavy metals and biotoxicity of nanoparticles

Microbial extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) coating nanoparticles (NPs) surface can form NPs-EPS corona, which significantly affect the adsorption of NPs to toxic substances and alter the ecotoxicological effect of NPs. In this work, the EPS coronas on TiO 2 NPs (TNPs) and CeO 2 NPs (CNPs) were characterized and the adsorption characteristics of NPs with and without EPS corona to five heavy metals were investigated in single-metal and multiple-metal systems. The results of spectral analysis showed that NPs-EPS corona exhibited new crystalline phases and abundant functional groups. Moreover, 42 and 13 proteins were identified in the TNPs-EPS and CNPs-EPS coronas, respectively. The rates of Cd 2+ , Pb 2+ , Cu 2+ , Ni 2+ and Ag + adsorption by NPs-EPS corona increased to values that were 6.7˗7.6, 4.4˗5.1, 4.2˗5.5, 3.9˗4.9 and 8.5˗8.8 times those of NPs without EPS corona, respectively, in single-metal system. NPs-EPS coronas are effective in absorbing Ag + , Pb 2+ and Cu 2+ compared with Cd 2+ and Ni 2+ in multiple metal adsorption. These results indicated that NPs-EPS corona effectively adsorb and remove heavy metals by forming NPs-EPS-metal complexes and inducing precipitation. However, NPs-EPS corona can enhance the toxicity of NPs by accumulating highly-toxic heavy metals in aquatic environments.