Transformation of silver nanoparticles released from skin cream and mouth spray in artificial sweat and saliva solutions: particle size, dissolution, and surface area

The use of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in consumer products can result in diffuse environmental dispersion of both NPs and ionic silver. This study investigated the transformation of Ag NPs present in two consumer products (skin cream, mouth spray) in terms of release of Ag NPs and ionic silver and changes in particle size in artificial sweat and saliva solutions. Large differences in silver release were observed with the smaller sized Ag NPs in mouth spray releasing more silver compared with the Ag NPs of the skin cream. Substantial particle agglomeration took place in both artificial sweat and saliva, forming large-sized agglomerates (> 100 nm). The amount of dissolved silver in solution after 24 h was less than 10% of the total amount of Ag NPs for both products. The results show that the Ag NPs of these consumer products will largely remain as NPs even after 24 h of skin or saliva contact. The use of normalization by geometric surface area of the particles was tested as a way to compare dissolution for Ag NPs of different characteristics, including pristine, bare, as well as PVP-capped Ag NPs. Normalization of silver dissolution with the geometric surface area was shown promising, but more extensive studies are required to unambiguously conclude whether it is a way forward to enable grouping of the dissolution behavior of Ag NPs released from consumer products. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1007/s11356-020-11241-w) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.