In vivo toxicity of nano-C60 aggregates complex with atrazine to aquatic organisms

The present study aims at investigating the potential impacts of the nC(60) complex with atrazine on the development of Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes) embryos and chronic toxicity to D. magna. Although exposure to nC(60) below 8 mg/L had no effects on the hatching rate of medaka embryos, it increased the deformity of hatched larvae. Moreover, the presence of nC(60) significantly increased the hatching time of the embryos exposed to atrazine. 14-day exposure of D. magna to nC(60) significantly reduced offspring production even at a concentration as low as 0.5 mg/L. This indicates that nC(60) is able to reduce the ability of D. magna to produce offspring, and therefore would have an impact on population. For atrazine, no significant difference in offspring production was observed. The nC(60) complex with atrazine was also found to significantly decrease the reproduction of D. magna, which was similar to the result of exposure to nC(60). These results suggest that nC(60) would have potential risks to aquatic organisms. Therefore, much attention should be paid to their associations with other contaminants for fullerene's risk assessment.