Search

Metal oxides may hold, as nanosized particles, a toxic potential to human health and the environment that is not present in the bulk material. Due to the high surface-to-volume ratio, small amounts can lead to strong oxidative damage within biological systems, impairing cellularfunctions as a consequence of their high surface reactivity. We report here on a new nanosized V203 material that has a needle-like structure with diameters of less than 30 nm and variable lengths. The potentiated toxicity of nanoscale vanadium oxide (V203) compared to bulk material is demonstrated here in human endo- and epithelial lung cells, and might be due to the higher catalytic surface of the particles. Reduction in cell viability is almost ten times stronger and starts with lowest concentrations of "nanoscaled" material (10 microg/mL). Vanadium oxide leads to an induction of heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) in a dose dependent manner in ECV304 cells whereas a reduction in protein levels can be observed for the epithelial cells (A549). Lipid peroxidation can be observed also for "nanoscaled" vanadium oxide to a much stronger extent in macrophages (RAW cells) than for bulk material. The observed effects can not only be explained by oxidation from V2O3 to V2O5 as there are significant differences between the novel nano vanadium and all used bulk materials (V203 and V205). It appears rather to be a nanoeffect of a high surface reactivity, here coupled with a yet unknown toxicity potentiating effect of a technically important catalyst.

The fabrication of lithium orthosilicate pebbles by melt-spraying enables a facile reprocessing of irradiated material by direct remelting. However, the necessary waiting period for the reprocessing is determined by the long-term activation of the material under irradiation that is dominated by the impurities. The activation characteristics for the current composition of lithium orthosilicate pebbles were assessed on the basis of three-dimensional activation calculations for a fusion power reactor. The calculations were used to identify critical amounts of impurities and were compared to the results of a hypothetical, pure material without impurities, as well as to a calculated Li-6 enriched OSi composition.

Nanocrystalline AlySn1−yO2−y/2 (y = 0.57, 0.4) was prepared by a co-precipitation method and subsequent calcination at temperatures of up to 650 °C. Transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction reveal crystallite sizes of about 2 nm and a crystal structure equivalent to that of pure SnO2 cassiterite. The local structure was investigated by 27Al and 119Sn NMR as well as by Sn Mossbauer spectroscopy. The results show the formation of a solid solution with a random distribution of Al and Sn on the cation sites and a random distribution of oxygen vacancies on the anion sites.