Fate of conjugated natural and synthetic steroid estrogens in crude sewage and activated sludge batch studies

This document is the unedited author's version of a Submitted Work that was subsequently accepted for publication in Environmental Science & Technology, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review. To access the final edited and published work see http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es801952h.Steroids are excreted from the human body in the conjugated form but are present in sewage influent and effluent as the free steroid, the major source of estrogenic activity observed in water courses. The fate of sulfate and glucuronide conjugated steroid estrogens was investigated in batch studies using activated sludge grown on synthetic sewage in a laboratory-scale Husmann simulation and crude sewage from the field. A clear distinction between the fate of sulfate and glucuronide conjugates was observed in both matrices, with sulfated conjugates proving more recalcitrant and glucuronide deconjugation preferential in crude sewage. For each conjugate, the free steroid was observed in the biotic samples. The degree of free steroid formation was dependent on the conjugate moiety, favoring the glucuronide. Subsequent degradation of the free steroid (and sorption to the activated sludge solid phase) was evaluated. Deconjugation followed the first order reaction rate with rate constants for 17α-ethinylestradiol 3-glucuronide, estriol 16α-glucuronide, and estrone 3-glucuronide determined as 0.32, 0.24, and 0.35 h respectively. The activated sludge solid retention time over the range of 3−9 days had 74 to 94% of sulfate conjugates remaining after 8 h. In contrast, a correlation between increasing temperature and decreasing 17α-ethinylestradiol 3-glucuronide concentrations in the activated sludge observed no conjugate present in the AS following 8 h at 22 °C Based on these batch studies and literature excretion profiles, a hypothesis is presented on which steroids and what form (glucuronide, sulfate, or free) will likely enter the sewage treatment plant.EPSR

High-performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry in the identification and determination of phase I and phase II drug metabolites

Applications of tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) techniques coupled with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the identification and determination of phase I and phase II drug metabolites are reviewed with an emphasis on recent papers published predominantly within the last 6 years (2002–2007) reporting the employment of atmospheric pressure ionization techniques as the most promising approach for a sensitive detection, positive identification and quantitation of metabolites in complex biological matrices. This review is devoted to in vitro and in vivo drug biotransformation in humans and animals. The first step preceding an HPLC-MS bioanalysis consists in the choice of suitable sample preparation procedures (biomatrix sampling, homogenization, internal standard addition, deproteination, centrifugation, extraction). The subsequent step is the right optimization of chromatographic conditions providing the required separation selectivity, analysis time and also good compatibility with the MS detection. This is usually not accessible without the employment of the parent drug and synthesized or isolated chemical standards of expected phase I and sometimes also phase II metabolites. The incorporation of additional detectors (photodiode-array UV, fluorescence, polarimetric and others) between the HPLC and MS instruments can result in valuable analytical information supplementing MS results. The relation among the structural changes caused by metabolic reactions and corresponding shifts in the retention behavior in reversed-phase systems is discussed as supporting information for identification of the metabolite. The first and basic step in the interpretation of mass spectra is always the molecular weight (MW) determination based on the presence of protonated molecules [M+H]+ and sometimes adducts with ammonium or alkali-metal ions, observed in the positive-ion full-scan mass spectra. The MW determination can be confirmed by the [M-H]- ion for metabolites providing a signal in negative-ion mass spectra. MS/MS is a worthy tool for further structural characterization because of the occurrence of characteristic fragment ions, either MSn analysis for studying the fragmentation patterns using trap-based analyzers or high mass accuracy measurements for elemental composition determination using time of flight based or Fourier transform mass analyzers. The correlation between typical functional groups found in phase I and phase II drug metabolites and corresponding neutral losses is generalized and illustrated for selected examples. The choice of a suitable ionization technique and polarity mode in relation to the metabolite structure is discussed as well

In vivo imaging device with fiber optic

Imaging device to detect electromagnetic radiation, which is preferably fluorescence-emission, wherein a collection unit collects the electromagnetic radiation and transmits it to a sensor device, wherein the sensor device is a photomultiplier array, preferably a silicon photomultiplier array, and the collection unit comprises a multichannel optical waveguide in the form of a mi-crostructured fiber, comprising at least two solid cores separated by at least one hollow tube, wherein in each solid core propagates a portion of the collected electromagnetic radiation and wherein the emitted portion of electromagnetic radiation of each individual solid core is projected by a projection-/ magnification unit on an individual pixel of the photomultiplier array

Synthesis of plasmonic Fe/Al nanoparticles in ionic liquids

Bottom-up and top-down approaches are described for the challenging synthesis of Fe/Al nanoparticles (NPs) in ionic liquids (ILs) under mild conditions. The crystalline phase and morphology of the metal nanoparticles synthesized in three different ionic liquids were identified by powder X-ray diffractometry (PXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) and fast Fourier transform (FFT) of high-resolution TEM images. Characterization was completed by scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM-EDX) for the analysis of the element composition of the whole sample consisting of the NPs and the amorphous background. The bottom-up approaches resulted in crystalline FeAl NPs on an amorphous background. The top-down approach revealed small NPs and could be identified as Fe4Al13 NPs which in the IL [OPy][NTf2] yield two absorption bands in the green-blue to green spectral region at 475 and 520 nm which give rise to a complementary red color, akin to appropriate Au NPs. © 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry