Bioaccumulation Behaviors of Copper Phthalocyanine Nano-pigments in Adult Zebrafish (Danio rerio)

Abstract

Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) has the largest application market of blue nano-pigments (NPs), which can release from relative products to aquatic environment during daily use. However, bioaccumulation of CuPc NPs in high trophic-level aquatic organisms is unclear. Therefore, bioaccumulation behaviors of CuPc in zebrafish as model aquatic organism were investigated. In this work, CuPc NPs were irregular in shape with an average size of 76.8 nm, whose crystal phase was a common beta phase according to the XRD spectrum. After 10 d of exposure to CuPc NPs, the weight of zebrafish at both low and high concentrations showed no obvious difference with con-trol, indicating little influence of CuPc on the survival of zebrafish. It was noted that amounts of Cu accumulated in the liver (982.84 ng/g) and skin (609.08 ng/g), and a small accumulation of Cu was observed in the gut, heart, and gill. CuPc NPs could not lead to Cu accumulation in the brain and muscle. This work helps to better understand the bioaccumulation behaviors and potential risks of CuPc NPs.