Fate assessment of commercial 2D MoS2 aqueous dispersions at physicochemical and toxicological level

Abstract

The physicochemical properties and the toxicological potential of commercially available MoS2 nanoparticles with different lateral size and degradation stage were studied in the present research work. To achieve this, the structure and stoichiometry of fresh and old aqueous suspensions of micro-MoS2 and nano-MoS2 was analyzed by Raman, while x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy allowed to identify more quantitatively the nature of the formed oxidized species. A, the toxicological impact of the nanomaterials under analysis was studied using adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549 cells) and the unicellular fungus S. cerevisiae as biological models. Cell viability assays and reactive oxygen species (ROS) determinations demonstrated different toxicity levels depending on the cellular model used and in function of the degradation state of the selected commercial nanoproducts. Both MoS2 nanoparticle types induced sublethal damage on the A549 cells though the increase of intracellular ROS levels, while comparable concentrations reduced the viability of yeast cells. In addition, the old MoS2 nanoparticles suspensions exhibited a higher toxicity for both human and yeast cells than the fresh ones. Our findings demonstrate that the fate assessment of nanomaterials is a critical aspect to increase the understanding on their characteristics and on their potential impact on biological systems along their life cycle.