Brian Sinnet

Claudia Cocozza

Daniel Grolimund

Ivano Brunner

Leonie C. Schönbeck

Marcus Schaub

Maria Elvira Murazzi

Paolo Cherubini

Paula Ballikaya

Ralf Kaegi

CHIMIA International Journal for Chemistry

Ballikaya, Paula

Brunner, Ivano

Cocozza, Claudia

Grolimund, Daniel

Kaegi, Ralf

Murazzi, Maria Elvira

Schaub, Marcus

Schönbeck, Leonie C.

Sinnet, Brian

Cherubini, Paolo

CHIMIA

Nanoparticles Are Everywhere, Even Inside Trees: Highlights of Analytical Sciences in Switzerland

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256 CHIMIA 2023, 77, No. 4 ColumnsNanoparticles Are Everywhere, Even Inside TreesPaula Ballikaya*ab, Ivano Brunnera, ClaudiaCocozzac, Daniel Grolimundd, Ralf Kaegie, Maria E.Murazzia, Marcus Schauba, Leonie C. Schönbeckaf,Brian Sinnete, and Paolo Cherubiniabg*Correspondence: P. Ballikayaab, E-mail: paula.ballikaya@wsl.chaWSL Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research, CH-8903 Birmensdorf; bDepartment of Geography, University of Zurich, CH-8057Zurich; cDepartment of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI),University of Florence, I-50145 Florence; dSwiss Light Source, PSI Paul ScherrerInstitute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI; eEawag Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Scienceand Technology, CH-8600 Dübendorf; fDepartment of Botany & Plant Sciences,University of California Riverside, 2150 Batchelor Hall, Riverside, CA, 92521-0124;gDepartment of Forest and Conservation Sciences, Faculty of Forestry, Universityof British Columbia, 2004-2424 Main Mall, V6T 1Z4, Vancouver BCKeywords: Gold nanoparticles · Leaf and root uptake · Pollution ·Stem accumulation · Stomatal pathway · Tree speciesThe presence of natural nanomaterials in the Earth system hasalways been abundant since billions of years. Since the IndustrialRevolution and the advent of nanotechnology, new types of nano-materials are released into the atmosphere, water and soil as abyproduct from human activities and as engineered nanoparticles(NPs) from NP-based products. To understand the consequencesof NP pollution, numerous studies are assessing the fate, trans-port and interaction of NPs in humans, organisms and environ-mental systems.Trees have been used for phytoremediation and as bio-mon-itors of current and past pollution as they can store various con-taminants in the roots, stems and leaves. Seemingly, trees musthave been exposed to naturally occurring NPs since they firstevolved. Recent evidence of foliar uptake and transport of silverNPs in trees increased the attention on understanding the inter-actions between NPs and trees. Today, still not much is knownabout the mechanisms of uptake of these particles, neither therisks related to their exposure, as a function of size and chemi-cal properties of the NPs. This assessment will contribute to en-lighten the potential role of trees in mitigating the NP pollutionand related impacts.In the framework of studying trees as bioindicators of pollu-tion, we used gold (Au) NPs as model NPs to investigate theiruptake and transport in European beech and Scots pine trees. Wefound that Au NPs were taken up by roots and leaves, while asmall fraction was transported to the stem in both species. Goldwas transported from leaves to roots but not vice versa. 2D X-rayfluorescence imaging of a beech leaf, complemented by 3D con-focal XRFmicroscopy, revealedAuNPs hotspots sparsely distrib-uted over the entire scanned part of the leaf.While severalAu NPswere mostly trapped on the leaf surface, abundantly associatedwith trichomes along the midrib and lateral veins, a small numberofAu NPs could penetrate the leaf, probably through the stomata.Our results show that trees can absorb NPs. Now we needto understand how they translocate them to different treecompartments.Received: February 14, 2023ReferencesP. Ballikaya, et al., Tree Physiol. 2023, 43, 262,https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpac117.P. Ballikaya, J. M. Mateos, I. Brunner, A. Kaech, P. Cherubini, Front. Environ.Sci. 2023, 10, 1107005. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenvs.2022.1107005.doi:10.2533/chimia.2023.256 Chimia 77 (2023) 256 © P. Ballikaya et al.Can you show us your analytical highlight?Please contact: Dr. Veronika R. Meyer, Unterstrasse 58, CH-9000 St.GallenTel.: +41 71 222 16 81, E-mail: analytical_highlights@chimia.chHighlights of Analytical Sciences in SwitzerlandDivision of Analytical SciencesA Division of the Swiss Chemical SocietyExperimental design to investigate the (A) root and (B) leaf uptake andtransport of Au NPs in European beech and Scots pine trees. The NPswere hydrophonically applied to the roots and sprayed to the leaves ina greenhouse chamber at the WSL Swiss Federal Research Institute.Microscopic, two- and three-dimensional chemical imaging. 2D XRFimages show the distribution of gold nanoparticles on leaf and petioleof European beech (top row). A tomographic sub-volume (indicatedby the square), obtained by confocal X-ray microscopy, revealed twoisolated gold nanoparticles, one in the leaf blade and one inside/on atrichome (bottom, right). The schematic representation of the sectionof beech leaf indicates the position of the tomographic slice shownin both panels. The 2D/3D chemical imaging was conducted at themicroXAS beamline at the Swiss Light Source of the Paul ScherrerInstitute.

Nanoparticles Are Everywhere, Even Inside Trees

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Nanoparticles Are Everywhere, Even Inside Trees

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