Occurrence, transport and environmental risk assessment of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) at the mouth of Jiaozhou Bay, China based on stir bar sorptive extraction

A review on carbon-based biowaste and organic polymer materials for sustainable treatment of sulfonamides from pharmaceutical wastewater

Frequent detection of sulfonamides (SAs) pharmaceuticals in wastewater has necessitated the discovery of suitable technology for their sustainable remediation. Adsorption has been widely investigated due to its effectiveness, simplicity, and availability of various adsorbent materials from natural and artificial sources. This review highlighted the potentials of carbon-based adsorbents derived from agricultural wastes such as lignocellulose, biochar, activated carbon, carbon nanotubes graphene materials as well as organic polymers such as chitosan, molecularly imprinted polymers, metal, and covalent frameworks for SAs removal from wastewater. The promising features of these materials including higher porosity, rich carbon-content, robustness, good stability as well as ease of modification have been emphasized. Thus, the materials have demonstrated excellent performance towards the SAs removal, attributed to their porous nature that provided sufficient active sites for the adsorption of SAs molecules. The modification of physico-chemical features of the materials have been discussed as efficient means for enhancing their adsorption and reusable performance. The article also proposed various interactive mechanisms for the SAs adsorption. Lastly, the prospects and challenges have been highlighted to expand the knowledge gap on the application of the materials for the sustainable removal of the SAs.

Distribution, ecological risks and priority of pharmaceuticals in the coastal water of Qinhuangdao, China

Although there has been a surge of interest in research focused on the presence of pharmaceuticals in the marine environment, study on the distribution and risks of pharmaceuticals in coastal waters remains inadequately documented due to the specific features of the marine environment, such as strong dilution, high salinity, and complex hydrodynamics. In this study, thirty pharmaceuticals with diverse physicochemical properties were analyzed in a coastal sea with low hydrodynamic energy caused by various artificial structures. The results indicate that 14 compounds were detected in seawater, with concentrations ranging from <1 to 201.4 ng L-1, among which caffeine, metoprolol, and atenolol were detected at high levels. Statistical analysis reveals the prevalence of the most target pharmaceuticals with downward trends in concentrations from estuary to offshore region, demonstrating the significant impacts of riverine inputs on the coastal water. Nevertheless, the distribution patterns of caffeine and atenolol were intricate, suggesting that they may have also originated from other unknown sources. A newly-developed method combining risk quotient (RQ) and species sensitivity distribution (SSD) models was used in ecological risk assessment. The results indicate generally higher risks of target pharmaceuticals in the estuary compared to the offshore region, with caffeine, carbamazepine, and norfloxacin identified as the top three priority pollutants.

An overview on human exposure, toxicity, solid-phase microextraction and adsorptive removal of perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) from water matrices

Perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (PFCAs) are sub-class of perfluoroalkyl substances commonly detected in water matrices. They are persistent in the environment, hence highly toxic to living organisms. Their occurrence at trace amount, complex nature and prone to matrix interference make their extraction and detection a challenge. This study consolidates current advancements in solid-phase extraction (SPE) techniques for the trace-level analysis of PFCAs from water matrices. The advantages of the methods in terms of ease of applications, low-cost, robustness, low solvents consumption, high pre-concentration factors, better extraction efficiency, good selectivity and recovery of the analytes have been emphasized. The article also demonstrated effectiveness of some porous materials for the adsorptive removal of the PFCAs from the water matrices. Mechanisms of the SPE/adsorption techniques have been discussed. The success and limitations of the processes have been elucidated.