Study of the photodegradation of 2-bromophenol under UV and sunlight by spectroscopic, chromatographic and chemometric techniques

Coupling of spectrometric, chromatographic, and chemometric analysis in the investigation of the photodegradation of sulfamethoxazole

A workflow is proposed for the study of the photodegradation process of the sulfamethoxazole (SMX) based on the combination of different experimental techniques, including liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, UV-Visible spectrophotometry, and the treatment of all the analytical data with advanced chemometric methods. SMX, which is one of the most widely used antibiotics worldwide and has been found at remarkable concentrations in various rivers and effluents over all Europe, was degraded in the laboratory under a controlled source of UV radiation, which simulates the environmental solar radiation (Suntest). Kinetic monitoring of the photodegradation process was performed using UV-Visible spectrophotometric measurements and by further Liquid Chromatography with Diode Array Detector and Mass Spectrometry analysis (LC-DAD-MS). Additionally, the acid-base properties were also investigated to see how the pH can affect the speciation of this substance during the photodegradation process. Based on the Multivariate Curve Resolution-Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) application, the proposed chemometric method coped with the large amounts of data generated by the different analytical techniques used to monitor the evolution of the photodegradation process. Their simultaneous analysis involved applying a data fusion strategy and an advanced MCR-ALS constrained analysis, which allowed and improved the description of the complete degradation process, detecting the different species of the reaction, and identifying the possible transformation products formed. A total number of six species were resolved in the degradation process of SMX. In addition to the initial SMX, a second species corresponded to a conformational isomer, and the other four species represented different photoproducts, which have also been identified. Furthermore, three different acid-base species of SMX were obtained, and their pK_a values were estimated.

Untargeted analysis of TD-NMR signals using a multivariate curve resolution approach: Application to the water-imbibition kinetics of Arabidopsis seeds

The aim of this study is to investigate the ability of Time-Domain Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (TD-NMR) combined with Multivariate Curve Resolution Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS) analysis to detect changes in hydration properties of nineteen genotypes of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) seeds during the imbibition process. The Hybrid hard and Soft modelling version of MCR-ALS (HS-MCR) applied to raw TD-NMR data allowed the introduction of kinetic models to elucidate underlying biological mechanisms. The imbibition process of all investigated hydrated Arabidopsis seeds could be described with a kinetic model based on two consecutive first-order reactions related to an initial absorption of water from the bulk around the seed and a posteriori hydration of the internal seed tissues, respectively. Good data fit was achieved (LOF % = 0.98 and r²% = 99.9), indicating that the hypothesis of the selected kinetic model was correct. An interpretation of the mucilage characteristics of the studied Arabidopsis seeds was also provided. The presented methodology offers a novel and general strategy to describe in a comprehensive way the kinetic process of plant tissue hydration in a screening objective. This work also proves the potential of the MCR methods to analyse raw TD-NMR signals as alternative to the controversial and time-consuming pre-processing techniques of this kind of data, known to be an ill-conditioned and ill-posed problem.

Direct Photolysis Rates and Transformation Pathways of the Lampricides TFM and Niclosamide in Simulated Sunlight

The lampricides 3-trifluoromethyl-4-nitrophenol (TFM) and 2',5-dichloro-4'-nitrosalicylanilide (niclosamide) are directly added to many tributaries of the Great Lakes that harbor the invasive parasitic sea lamprey. Despite their long history of use, the fate of lampricides is not well understood. This study evaluates the rate and pathway of direct photodegradation of both lampricides under simulated sunlight. The estimated half-lives of TFM range from 16.6 ± 0.2 h (pH 9) to 32.9 ± 1.0 h (pH 6), while the half-lives of niclosamide range from 8.88 ± 0.52 days (pH 6) to 382 ± 83 days (pH 9) assuming continuous irradiation over a water depth of 55 cm. Both compounds degrade to form a series of aromatic intermediates, simple organic acids, ring cleavage products, and inorganic ions. Experimental data were used to construct a kinetic model which demonstrates that the aromatic products of TFM undergo rapid photolysis and emphasizes that niclosamide degradation is the rate-limiting step to dehalogenation and mineralization of the lampricide. This study demonstrates that TFM photodegradation is likely to occur on the time scale of lampricide applications (2-5 days), while niclosamide, the less selective lampricide, will undergo minimal direct photodegradation during its passage to the Great Lakes.

Multicomponent kinetic analysis and theoretical studies on the phenolic intermediates in the oxidation of eugenol and isoeugenol catalyzed by laccase

Laccase catalyzes the oxidation of natural phenols and thereby is believed to initialize reactions in lignification and delignification. Numerous phenolic mediators have also been applied in laccase-mediator systems. However, reaction details after the primary O-H rupture of phenols remain obscure. In this work two types of isomeric phenols, EUG (eugenol) and ISO (trans-/cis-isoeugenol), were used as chemical probes to explore the enzymatic reaction pathways, with the combined methods of time-resolved UV-Vis absorption spectra, MCR-ALS, HPLC-MS, and quantum mechanical (QM) calculations. It has been found that the EUG-consuming rate is linear to its concentration, while the ISO not. Besides, an o-methoxy quinone methide intermediate, (E/Z)-4-allylidene-2-methoxycyclohexa-2,5-dienone, was evidenced in the case of EUG with the UV-Vis measurement, mass spectra and TD-DFT calculations; in contrast, an ISO-generating phenoxyl radical, a (E/Z)-2-methoxy-4-(prop-1-en-1-yl) phenoxyl radical, was identified in the case of ISO. Furthermore, QM calculations indicated that the EUG-generating phenoxyl radical (an O-centered radical) can easily transform into an allylic radical (a C-centered radical) by hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) with a calculated activation enthalpy of 5.3 kcal mol(-1) and then be fast oxidized to the observed eugenol quinone methide, rather than an O-radical alkene addition with barriers above 12.8 kcal mol(-1). In contrast, the ISO-generating phenoxyl radical directly undergoes a radical coupling (RC) process, with a barrier of 4.8 kcal mol(-1), while the HAT isomerization between O- and C-centered radicals has a higher reaction barrier of 8.0 kcal mol(-1). The electronic conjugation of the benzyl-type radical and the aromatic allylic radical leads to differentiation of the two pathways. These results imply that competitive reaction pathways exist for the nascent reactive intermediates generated in the laccase-catalyzed oxidation of natural phenols, which is important for understanding the lignin polymerization and may shed some light on the development of efficient laccase-mediator systems.

Thermal edible oil evaluation by UV-Vis spectroscopy and chemometrics

Edible oils such as colza, corn, sunflower, soybean and olive were analysed by UV-Vis spectroscopy and Multivariate Curve Resolution with Alternating Least Squares (MCR-ALS). When vegetable oils were heated at high temperatures (frying), oxidation products were formed which were harmful to human health in addition to degrading the antioxidants present, and this study aimed to evaluate tocopherol (one antioxidant present in oils) and the behaviour of oxidation products in edible oils. The MCR-ALS results showed that the degradation started at 110°C and 85°C, respectively, for sunflower and colza oils, while tocopherol concentration decreased and oxidation products increased starting at 70°C in olive oil. In soybean and corn oils, tocopherol concentration started to decrease and oxidation products increased at 50°C. The results suggested that sunflower, colza and olive oils offered more resistance to increasing temperatures, while soybean and corn oils were less resistant.

Bromine and carbon isotope effects during photolysis of brominated phenols

In the present study, carbon and bromine isotope effects during UV-photodegradation of bromophenols in aqueous and ethanolic solutions were determined. An anomalous relatively high inverse bromine isotope fractionation (εreactive position up to +5.1‰) along with normal carbon isotope effect (εreactive position of -12.6‰ to -23.4‰) observed in our study may be attributed to coexistence of both mass-dependent and mass-independent isotope fractionation of C-Br bond cleavage. Isotope effects of a similar scale were observed for all the studied reactions in ethanol, and for 4-bromophenol in aqueous solution. This may point out related radical mechanism for these processes. The lack of any carbon and bromine isotope effects during photodegradation of 2-bromophenol in aqueous solution possibly indicates that C-Br bond cleavage is not a rate-limiting step in the reaction. The bromine isotope fractionation, without any detectable carbon isotope effect, that was observed for 3-bromophenol photolysis in aqueous solution probably originates from mass-independent fractionation.

Hybrid hard- and soft-modeling of spectrophotometric data for monitoring of ciprofloxacin and its main photodegradation products at different pH values

A simple and fast on line spectrophotometric method combined with a hybrid hard-soft modeling multivariate curve resolution (HS-MCR) was proposed for the monitoring of photodegradation reaction of ciprofloxacin under UV radiation. The studied conditions attempt to emulate the effect of sunlight on these antibiotics that could be eventually present in the environment. The continuous flow system made it possible to study the ciprofloxacin degradation at different pH values almost at real time, avoiding errors that could arise from typical batch monitoring of the reaction. On the base of a concentration profiles obtained by previous pure soft-modeling approach, reaction pathways have been proposed for the parent compound and its photoproducts at different pH values. These kinetic models were used as a constraint in the HS-MCR analysis. The kinetic profiles and the corresponding pure response profile (UV-Vis spectra) of ciprofloxacin and its main degradation products were recovered after the application of HS-MCR analysis to the spectra recorded throughout the reaction. The observed behavior showed a good agreement with the photodegradation studies reported in the bibliography. Accordingly, the photodegradation reaction was studied by high performance liquid chromatography coupled with UV-Vis diode array detector (HPLC-DAD). The spectra recorded during the chromatographic analysis present a good correlation with the ones recovered by UV-Vis/HS-MCR method.