Nanotoxicity Evaluation of Doped Silicon Nanocrystals

Recent discoveries of high yield synthesis at el Kortshagen producing doped silicon nanocrystals (DSNCs) via non-thermal plasma reactor have sparked great research interest. DSNCs are semiconducting material with size tunable luminescent capability enabling various applications from biosensing, biomaging, florescent agents, optoelectronics, nanoelectronics, spectroscopy enchancement, and subwavelength microscopy. This versatile semiconducting material has yet to interact with the environment where living organism are found, so the environmental implications remain unknown. Hence, the proposed research entails the exploration of evaluating the nanotoxicity of DSNCs in model organism, Shewanella oneidensis MR-1 (S.oneidensis). The drop plate assay was the method used to assess the toxicity of DSNCs. TEM, XPS, and Hyperspectral imaging were used to characterize DSNCs. After experimentation, results were inconclusive to indicate the DSNCs are toxic or non-toxic.