US EPA

3842595 

Journal Article 

The toxicity of HCrO4(-) and CrO4(2-) to barley root elongation in solution culture: pH effect and modelling 

Song, N; Ma, Y 

2017 

Yes 

Chemosphere
ISSN: 0045-6535
EISSN: 1879-1298 

171 

537-543 

English 

28039832 

10.1016/j.chemosphere.2016.12.050 

The influence of pH on the toxicity of Cr(VI) to barley root elongation was studied in solution culture to better understand the toxicity of different species of Cr(VI). Results showed that the values of EC50{CrO4(2-)} (the free CrO4(2-) that results in50% of barley root elongation with respect to the control) increased when the pH increased from 4.5 to 6.5; however, it was not significantly different in the high-pH range from 7.0 to 8.5. The nonlinear relationship between EC50{CrO4(2-)} and OH(-) activity indicated that OH(-) competition with Cr(VI) on cell membrane ligands was not strong. There was a good linear relationship (R(2) = 0.99) between the ratio of HCrO4(-) activity to CrO4(2-) activity and Cr(VI) toxicity to barley root elongation when the toxicity of HCrO4(-) were considered, indicating that the observed toxicity of Cr(VI) in the high pH range may be caused by HCrO4(-) and CrO4(2-) in solution. It was found that HCrO4(-) had a greater binding affinity than CrO4(2-) on the biotic ligand sites. The logistic dose-response curves showed that consideration of Cr(VI) dose as HCrO4(-) and CrO4(2-) significantly improved the data fit compared to consideration of the activity of HCrO4(-) or CrO4(2-) only. The present study suggested that HCrO4(-) was highly toxic to the root of barely, and both HCrO4(-) and CrO4(2-) species needed to be considered when predicting the toxicity of Cr(VI) under different pH conditions.