{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T12:09:14Z","timestamp":1784117354914,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":51,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"23","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,6]],"date-time":"2022-12-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1670284800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"European Association of Industrial Silica Producers"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJMS"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Occupational exposure to quartz dust is associated with fatal diseases. Quartz dusts generated by mechanical fracturing are characterized by a broad range of micrometric to nanometric particles. The contribution of this nanometric fraction to the overall toxicity of quartz is still largely unexplored, primarily because of the strong electrostatic adhesion forces that prevent isolation of the nanofraction. Furthermore, fractured silica dust exhibits special surface features, namely nearly free silanols (NFS), which impart a membranolytic activity to quartz. Nanoquartz can be synthetized via bottom-up methods, but the surface chemistry of such crystals strongly differs from that of nanoparticles resulting from fracturing. Here, we report a top-down milling procedure to obtain a nanometric quartz that shares the key surface properties relevant to toxicity with fractured quartz. The ball milling was optimized by coupling the dry and wet milling steps, using water as a dispersing agent, and varying the milling times and rotational speeds. Nanoquartz with a strong tendency to form submicrometric agglomerates was obtained. The deagglomeration with surfactants or simulated body fluids was negligible. Partial lattice amorphization and a bimodal crystallite domain size were observed. A moderate membranolytic activity, which correlated with the number of NFS, signaled coherence with the previous toxicological data. A membranolytic nanoquartz for toxicological investigations was obtained.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijms232315425","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,7]],"date-time":"2022-12-07T01:47:46Z","timestamp":1670377666000},"page":"15425","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Top-Down Preparation of Nanoquartz for Toxicological Investigations"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Chiara","family":"Bellomo","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"\u201cG. Scansetti\u201d Interdepartmental Centre for Studies on Asbestos and Other Toxic Particulates, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3786-426X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cristina","family":"Pavan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"\u201cG. Scansetti\u201d Interdepartmental Centre for Studies on Asbestos and Other Toxic Particulates, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Louvain Centre for Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology, Universit\u00e9 catholique de Louvain, 1200 Brussels, Belgium"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gianluca","family":"Fiore","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces Interdepartmental Centre, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guillermo","family":"Escolano-Casado","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces Interdepartmental Centre, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9882-8361","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Lorenzo","family":"Mino","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces Interdepartmental Centre, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5806-829X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Francesco","family":"Turci","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"\u201cG. Scansetti\u201d Interdepartmental Centre for Studies on Asbestos and Other Toxic Particulates, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"},{"name":"Nanostructured Interfaces and Surfaces Interdepartmental Centre, University of Turin, 10125 Turin, Italy"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"445","DOI":"10.1016\/S2213-2600(16)30424-6","article-title":"Occupational lung diseases: From old and novel exposures to effective preventive strategies","volume":"5","author":"Cullinan","year":"2017","journal-title":"Lancet Respir. Med."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2805","DOI":"10.1111\/all.14202","article-title":"Silica-related diseases in the modern world","volume":"75","author":"Hoy","year":"2020","journal-title":"Allergy"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Iler, K.R. (1979). 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