Potential acute effects of suspended aluminum nitride (AlN) nanoparticles on soluble microbial products (SMP) of activated sludge.

The study aims to identify the potential acute effects of suspended aluminum nitride (AlN) nanoparticles (NPs) on soluble microbial products (SMP) of activated sludge. Cultured activated sludge loaded with 1, 10, 50, 100, 150 and 200mg/L of AlN NPs were carried out in this study. As results showed, AlN NPs had a highly inverse proportionality to bacterial dehydrogenase and OUR, indicating its direct toxicity to the activated sludge viability. The toxicity of AlN NPs was mainly due to the nano-scale of AlN NPs. In SMP, AlN NPs led to the decrease of polysaccharide and humic compounds, but had slight effects on protein. The decrease of tryptophan-like substances in SMP indicated the inhibition of AlN NPs on the bacterial metabolism. Additionally, AlN NPs reduced obviously the molecular weight of SMP, which might be due to the nano-scale of AlN.