An efficient laboratory workflow for environmental risk assessment of organic chemicals

TY - JOUR

T1 - An efficient laboratory workflow for environmental risk assessment of organic chemicals

AU - Zhu, Linyan

AU - Santiago-Schübel, Beatrix

AU - Xiao, Hongxia

AU - Thiele, Björn

AU - Zhu, Zhiliang

AU - Qiu, Yanling

AU - Hollert, Henner

AU - Küppers, Stephan

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.

PY - 2015/7/1

Y1 - 2015/7/1

N2 - In this study, we demonstrate a fast and efficient workflow to investigate the transformation mechanism of organic chemicals and evaluate the toxicity of their transformation products (TPs) in laboratory scale. The transformation process of organic chemicals was first simulated by electrochemistry coupled online to mass spectrometry (EC-MS). The simulated reactions were scaled up in a batch EC reactor to receive larger amounts of a reaction mixture. The mixture sample was purified and concentrated by solid phase extraction (SPE) for the further ecotoxicological testing. The combined toxicity of the reaction mixture was evaluated in fish egg test (FET) (Danio rerio) compared to the parent compound. The workflow was verified with carbamazepine (CBZ). By using EC-MS seven primary TPs of CBZ were identified; the degradation mechanism was elucidated and confirmed by comparison to literature. The reaction mixture and one primary product (acridine) showed higher ecotoxicity in fish egg assay with 96h EC50 values of 1.6 and 1.0mgL-1 than CBZ with the value of 60.8mgL-1. The results highlight the importance of transformation mechanism study and toxicological effect evaluation for organic chemicals brought into the environment since transformation of them may increase the toxicity. The developed process contributes a fast and efficient laboratory method for the risk assessment of organic chemicals and their TPs.

AB - In this study, we demonstrate a fast and efficient workflow to investigate the transformation mechanism of organic chemicals and evaluate the toxicity of their transformation products (TPs) in laboratory scale. The transformation process of organic chemicals was first simulated by electrochemistry coupled online to mass spectrometry (EC-MS). The simulated reactions were scaled up in a batch EC reactor to receive larger amounts of a reaction mixture. The mixture sample was purified and concentrated by solid phase extraction (SPE) for the further ecotoxicological testing. The combined toxicity of the reaction mixture was evaluated in fish egg test (FET) (Danio rerio) compared to the parent compound. The workflow was verified with carbamazepine (CBZ). By using EC-MS seven primary TPs of CBZ were identified; the degradation mechanism was elucidated and confirmed by comparison to literature. The reaction mixture and one primary product (acridine) showed higher ecotoxicity in fish egg assay with 96h EC50 values of 1.6 and 1.0mgL-1 than CBZ with the value of 60.8mgL-1. The results highlight the importance of transformation mechanism study and toxicological effect evaluation for organic chemicals brought into the environment since transformation of them may increase the toxicity. The developed process contributes a fast and efficient laboratory method for the risk assessment of organic chemicals and their TPs.

KW - Carbamazepine

KW - Ecotoxicity

KW - Electrochemistry-mass spectrometry

KW - Organic pollutants

KW - Risk assessment

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84928731362&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.02.031

DO - 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.02.031

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25765261

AN - SCOPUS:84928731362

SN - 0045-6535

VL - 131

SP - 34

EP - 40

JO - Chemosphere

JF - Chemosphere

ER -