Growing interest in monoclinic VO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) among consumers and the industries of window coatings, solar sensors etc. has brought particular attention to their safety concerns. The toxicity of this new class of nanomaterials in bacterial ecosystems has not yet been evaluated. The degree of crystallinity is a significant parameter that determines the performance of materials. However, the previously reported methods for toxicity assessment have neglected its influence. In this work, we systematically evaluated the toxicity of VO₂ NPs with different degrees of crystallinity to four typical bacterial strains and studied the influence of physicochemical properties and aging treatment on their antibacterial effect. The results showed that the toxicity of VO₂ nanoparticles was very low. Interestingly, we found that antibacterial properties of VO₂ NPs were dependent on both bacterial strains and VO₂ particle properties. In addition, the highly crystalline VO₂ NPs were more toxic than normal and industrial VO₂ particles. We attribute the crystallinity-related toxicity to the dissolved vanadium, the physical interactions between the bacteria and particles, and the generation of reactive oxygen species, as supported by our experimental results and theoretical calculation.

中文翻译：

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工程单斜晶VO ₂纳米颗粒的毒性评估和机理研究†

消费者以及窗户涂料，太阳能传感器等行业对单斜晶VO ₂纳米颗粒（NPs）的兴趣日益浓厚。特别注意了他们的安全问题。尚未评估这种新型纳米材料在细菌生态系统中的毒性。结晶度是决定材料性能的重要参数。但是，先前报道的毒性评估方法忽略了其影响。在这项工作中，我们系统地评估了VO ₂的毒性对四个典型细菌菌株具有不同结晶度的NP，并研究了理化性质和时效处理对其抗菌效果的影响。结果表明，VO ₂纳米颗粒的毒性很低。有趣的是，我们发现VO ₂ NPs的抗菌特性取决于细菌菌株和VO ₂颗粒特性。此外，高度结晶的VO ₂ NPs比普通和工业VO ₂更具毒性。粒子。我们将结晶度相关的毒性归因于溶解的钒，细菌与颗粒之间的物理相互作用以及活性氧物种的生成，这得到了我们的实验结果和理论计算的支持。