Determination of acid dissociation constants and reaction kinetics of dimethylamine-based PPCPs with O₃, NaClO, ClO₂ and KMnO₄

Dimethylamine-based pharmaceutical personal care products (DMA-based PPCPs) are a group of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) precursors. The acid dissociation constant (pKa) values of four DMA-based PPCPs were determined by potentiometric titration over the pH range of 3–11. The pKa values of ranitidine, nizatidine, doxylamine and carbinoxamine corresponding to the DMA moiety were 8.4, 6.8, 9.4 and 9.1, respectively. Competition reaction kinetics and pseudo-first-order reaction kinetics were used to determine the reaction rate constant (k) of the DMA-based PPCPs with O3, NaClO, ClO2 and KMnO4. Comparing the degradation rate constants of the four DMA-based PPCPs, the results of ClO2 oxidation were close, and for the other three oxidants, the order was kranitidine ≈ knizatidine > kdoxylamine ≈ kcarbinoxamine. Comparing the reaction rate of the four oxidants, for ranitidine and nizatidine, the order was kNaClO > kO3 > kKMnO4 > kClO2, and for doxylamine and carbinoxamine, the order was kO3 > kNaClO > kClO2 > kKMnO4.</p

Mechanisms of ZnO Nanoparticles Enhancing Phototransformation of Biologically Derived Organic Phosphorus in Aquatic Environments

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs), as the highly efficient photocatalysts, could enhance the transformation of biogenic organic phosphorus (OP) to orthophosphate (PO43–) by photodegradation, accelerating eutrophication. Conversely, orthophosphate can also transform ZnO NPs and thus potentially alter their catalytic and chemical properties. Here, we investigated the transformation mechanisms of three biogenic OP compounds and ZnO NPs under ultraviolet light (UV) illumination: inositol phosphates (IHPs), nucleic acids (DNA), and aminoethylphosphonic acid (AEP). The physicochemical characteristics of the resulting products were systematically characterized. Results show that ZnO NPs accelerated the transformation of IHPs, DNA, and AEP to inorganic phosphorus with the direct photolysis efficiencies of 98.14, 87.68, and 51.76%, respectively. The main component of the precipitates remained ZnO NPs, and Zn3(PO4)2 was identified. Zinc phytate was determined in the ZnO NP–IHP system. 31P NMR and FTIR further confirmed that the aquatic phase contained orthophosphate. Photoproduced hydroxyl (·OH) and superoxide (·O2–) were proved to play a dominant role in the OP photomineralization. Furthermore, ZnO NPs significantly enhanced the intensity of ·OH and ·O2– compared to the OP and Zn2+ solution alone. This work explored the light-induced mineralization processes of OP with ZnO NPs indicating that nanophotocatalysts may play a positive role in transformation of OP species in aquatic environments to further contribute to eutrophication

DataSheet1_Combined the Photocatalysis and Fenton-like Reaction to Efficiently Remove Sulfadiazine in Water Using g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH: Insights Into the Degradation Pathway From Density Functional Theory.docx

Sulfadiazine (SDZ) is a common antibiotic pollutant in wastewater. Given that it poses a risk as an environmental pollutant, finding effective ways to treat it is important. In this paper, the composite catalytic material g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH was prepared, and its degradation performance was studied. g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH had a superior degradation effect on SDZ than g-C3N4 and γ-FeOOH. Compared with different g-C3N4 loadings and different catalyst dosages (5, 10, 25, and 50 mg/L), 2 mg/L g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH with a g-C3N4 loading of 5.0 wt% has the highest degradation promotion rate for SDZ, reaching up to 258.75% at 600 min. In addition, the photocatalytic enhancement mechanism of the catalyst was studied. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the enhancement of photocatalytic activity was related to the narrowing of the forbidden band and the local electron density of the valence band. The bandgap of the catalyst was gradually narrowed from 2.7 to 1.05 eV, which can increase the light absorption intensity and expand the absorption edge. The density of states diagram showed that the local resonance at the interface could effectively improve the separation efficiency of e−-h+ pairs. Four degradation paths of SDZ were speculated based on DFT calculations. The analysis confirmed that the degradation path of SDZ primarily included Smiles-type rearrangement, SO2 extrusion, and S-N bond cleavage processes.</p

Image1_Combined the Photocatalysis and Fenton-like Reaction to Efficiently Remove Sulfadiazine in Water Using g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH: Insights Into the Degradation Pathway From Density Functional Theory.TIF

Sulfadiazine (SDZ) is a common antibiotic pollutant in wastewater. Given that it poses a risk as an environmental pollutant, finding effective ways to treat it is important. In this paper, the composite catalytic material g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH was prepared, and its degradation performance was studied. g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH had a superior degradation effect on SDZ than g-C3N4 and γ-FeOOH. Compared with different g-C3N4 loadings and different catalyst dosages (5, 10, 25, and 50 mg/L), 2 mg/L g-C3N4/Ag/γ-FeOOH with a g-C3N4 loading of 5.0 wt% has the highest degradation promotion rate for SDZ, reaching up to 258.75% at 600 min. In addition, the photocatalytic enhancement mechanism of the catalyst was studied. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated that the enhancement of photocatalytic activity was related to the narrowing of the forbidden band and the local electron density of the valence band. The bandgap of the catalyst was gradually narrowed from 2.7 to 1.05 eV, which can increase the light absorption intensity and expand the absorption edge. The density of states diagram showed that the local resonance at the interface could effectively improve the separation efficiency of e−-h+ pairs. Four degradation paths of SDZ were speculated based on DFT calculations. The analysis confirmed that the degradation path of SDZ primarily included Smiles-type rearrangement, SO2 extrusion, and S-N bond cleavage processes.</p

Assessing dissolved organic matter in the Johannesburg-Sulfur autotrophic denitrification system using excitation—emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy with a parallel factor analysis

<p>A novel system integrating Johannesburg (JHB) and sulfur autotrophic denitrification (SAD) process was proposed with the purpose of efficient removal of organic matter and nitrogen when treating low COD/TN ratio municipal wastewater. The characteristics and fate of dissolved organic matter in the Johannesburg-Sulfur autotrophic denitrification (JHB-SAD) system were investigated using excitation–emission matrix fluorescence spectroscopy with a parallel factor analysis. Three components were identified including tryptophan-like (component <i>C</i>₁), tyrosine-like (component <i>C</i>₂), and fulvic-like (component <i>C</i>₃) materials. The tyrosine-like and tryptophan-like materials, which were more abundant than fulvic-like materials, were the dominant components of the raw municipal wastewater in Shenyang North Wastewater Treatment Plant. In the JHB-SAD system, the tyrosine-like and tryptophan-like materials were more efficiently removed than the fulvic-like materials, and the removal efficiencies of the three components were 80.8% (tryptophan-like materials), 72.5% (tyrosine-like materials), and 33.4% (fulvic-like materials), respectively. Furthermore, the removal performance of the three components varied in the different zones of the JHB-SAD system. The tryptophan-like and fulvic-like materials were removed in the pre-anoxic, anaerobic, and aerobic zones. The tyrosine-like materials were mainly degraded in the anoxic and aerobic zones; then, they were released by the bacteria in the SAD reactor. In addition, the tryptophan-like materials had a very significant positive linear correlation with the concentrations of soluble chemical oxygen demand.</p

Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Revealed the Biological Response of <i>Chlorella pyrenoidesa</i> to Single and Repeated Exposures of AgNPs at Different Concentrations

Increased release of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) from widely used commercial products has threatened environmental health and safety, particularly the repeated exposures to ENPs with relatively low concentration. Herein, we studied the response of Chlorella pyrenoidesa (C. pyrenoidesa) to single and repeated exposures to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). Repeated exposures to AgNPs promoted chlorophyll a and carotenoid production, and increased silver accumulation, thus enhancing the risk of AgNPs entering the food chain. Notably, the extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) content of the 1-AgNPs and 3-AgNPs groups were dramatically increased by 119.1% and 151.5%, respectively. We found that C. pyrenoidesa cells exposed to AgNPs had several significant alterations in metabolic process and cellular transcription. Most of the genes and metabolites are altered in a dose-dependent manner. Compared with the control group, single exposure had more differential genes and metabolites than repeated exposures. 562, 1341, 4014, 227, 483, and 2409 unigenes were differentially expressed by 1–0.5-AgNPs, 1–5-AgNPs, 1–10-AgNPs, 3–0.5-AgNPs, 3–5-AgNPs, and 3–10-AgNPs treatment groups compared with the control. Metabolomic analyses revealed that AgNPs altered the levels of sugars and amino acids, suggesting that AgNPs reprogrammed carbon/nitrogen metabolism. The changes of genes related to carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, such as citrate synthase (CS), isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH1), and malate dehydrogenase (MDH), further supported these results. These findings elucidated the mechanism of biological responses to repeated exposures to AgNPs, providing a new perspective on the risk assessment of nanomaterials