Ethylenediamine is attached to the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles via electrostatic interactions, what the effects of inhaling a very small quantity of these nanoparticles may be? Pure ethylenediamine is toxic, but it would exert its toxicity for as long as the nanoparticles stay in the lungs or weak bond would be broken,leaving only the naked iron oxide nanoparticles?
Dear Dr. John Oldman,
you are right, the wide application of engineered nanoparticles has induced increasing exposure to humans and environment, which led to substantial concerns on their biosafety.
I suggest you to have a look at the following papers:
-Concise International Chemical Assessment Document 15 - 1,2-DIAMINOETHANE (ETHYLENEDIAMINE)
By World Health Organization (1999)
Available at: https://www.who.int/ipcs/publications/cicad/en/cicad15.pdf?ua=1
-Design considerations for the synthesis of polymer coated iron oxide nanoparticles for stem cell labelling and tracking using MRI
Michael Barrow, Arthur Taylor, Patricia Murray, Matthew J. Rosseinsky and Dave J. Adams
Chem. Soc. Rev.,44, 6733-6748 (2015)
Available at: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2015/cs/c5cs00331h#!divAbstract
-Reduction of pulmonary toxicity of metal oxide nanoparticles by phosphonate-based surface passivation
Cai, X., Lee, A., Ji, Z. et al.
Part Fibre Toxicol 14, 13 (2017)
Available at: https://particleandfibretoxicology.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12989-017-0193-5#citeas
Best regards, Pierluigi Traverso
Generally iron oxide nanoparticles have negligible toxicity. As you probably have functionalized the nanoscopic surface with ethylenediamine, it might impart a higher toxicity. Actually it depends on, how much toxic molecules are attached, whether or not you have washed your samples via centrifugation or something. Without that, it is difficult to say. But, I don't think it could be fatal anyway. I'd rather suggest to use PEG, PVA, PAA type polymeric surfactants or citrate, tartrate, oxalate type carboxilic acid salts to functionalize the nanoparticles, or control size and morphology. You may go through this article to find more:
Article Size-modulation of functionalized Fe3O4: Nanoscopic customiz...
Souvik Bhattacharjee Thanks for the answer, in particular it was a sample of 3 g of iron oxide NPs coated with 2% w/w of ethylenediamine (so 60 mg of ethylenediamine). NPs were dispersed in water and not handled as dry powder.
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