ERIC Number: EJ1110423
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2016-Aug
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0021-9584
EISSN: N/A
Using Mung Beans as a Simple, Informative Means to Evaluate the Phytotoxicity of Engineered Nanomaterials and Introduce the Concept of Nanophytotoxicity to Undergraduate Students
Ross, Shailise S.; Owen, Matthew J.; Pedersen, Brian P.; Liu, Gang-yu; Miller, William J. W.
Journal of Chemical Education, v93 n8 p1428-1433 Aug 2016
This work presents a lecture and lab series that focuses on teaching the concept of nanophytotoxicity to undergraduate students in a relatively simple experiment. In this experiment, students evaluated the phytotoxicity of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) using mung beans (i.e., "Vigna radiata") and industrially relevant, commercially available ENMs, silicon dioxide (SiO[subscript 2]) and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles (NPs). In comparison to the control system using solutions of Nanopure water, the growth of mung beans in solutions of ZnO NPs with a concentration of 20 mg/L was severely stunted, showing clear evidence of a high level of nanophytotoxicity. The growth of mung beans in solutions of SiO[subscript 2] NPs with the same concentration was intermediate to, though statistically separate from, the aforementioned solutions, showing clear evidence of a lower level of nanophytotoxicity than for the ZnO NPs. The simplicity of the experiment and the clear phytotoxic results should make this experiment of interest to many types of students including science majors, nonmajors, and high school students.
Descriptors: Undergraduate Students, Experiential Learning, Laboratory Experiments, Science Instruction, Science Experiments, College Science, Comparative Analysis
Division of Chemical Education, Inc and ACS Publications Division of the American Chemical Society. 1155 Sixteenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 800-227-5558; Tel: 202-872-4600; e-mail: eic@jce.acs.org; Web site: http://pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Science Foundation (NSF)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: California
Grant or Contract Numbers: CHE1413708