A. Di Corcia et al., Occurrence and abundance of dicarboxylated metabolites of nonylphenol polyethoxylate surfactants in treated sewages, ENV SCI TEC, 34(18), 2000, pp. 3914-3919
Citations number
23
Categorie Soggetti
Environment/Ecology,"Environmental Engineering & Energy
Very little is known on the occurrence and abundance in the environment of
dicarboxylated metabolites (CAPECs) of AgPE surfactants. We have monitored
monthly CAPECs and the other AgPE metabolites in effluents of five activate
d sludge sewage treatment plants (STPs) for 4 months. The analytical proced
ure is based on solid-phase extraction with a Carbograph 4 cartridge and li
quid chromatography-mass spectrometry (MS) with an electrospray (ES) interf
ace. On extracting 25 and 250 mL of respectively untreated and treated sewa
ge samples, analyte recoveries ranged between 87 and 93% with RSDs no large
r than 10%. Unexpectedly, data averaged on 20 samples of treated sewages sh
owed that CAPECs were the dominant products of the AgPE biotransformation,
accounting for 66% of all the metabolites leaving the plants. As a total, C
A(8)PEC and CA(6)PEC represented 87% of the CAPEC class. On the average, CA
PEC amounts having one ethoxy unit (CAPE(2)Cs) were almost double those of
species having only a phenoxy acid moiety (CAPE(1)Cs). CAPEC species having
more than four ethoxy units were never detected during our survey.