Characterization and Ecotoxicological Evaluation of Nanostructured Chitosan Particles

Today there are several areas impacted by contaminants dangerous to the environment and there is a growing need to recover, with the use of materials that generate less environmental impacts. In this environmental line the use of green materials, such as chitosan, an amino polysaccharide derived from a very abundant Chitin and is capable of adsorbing heavy metals and anionic and cationic dyes due to the presence of amino and hydroxyl groups. Another very growing aspect is the new technologies as the nanoparticles can be classified by the structure or size of the material. Therefore, the challenge is to use new technologies and also to know the influence of nanoparticles in the environment. The objective of this work was to characterize the nanostructured chitosan and to evaluate its toxicity. The characterization test is Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and High Resolution Scanning Microscopy (SEM-FEG). To evaluate the toxicity of nanostructured chitosan (green material) magnetized chitosan in different percentages (with iron oxide II, III nanoparticles) and metallic nanoparticles were considered the organisms: Euruca sativa (arugula) and Allivibrio fischeri, using lyophilized bacteria. The results indicated the difference of the structures in relation to the percentage of Chitosan used, being Chitosan 1% with higher magnetic frequency. They also indicated a decrease in growth in samples with magnetic nanoparticles and acute toxicity to Allivibrio fischeri in contact with magnetized chitosan and magnetic nanoparticles.