Formation and Behavior of Fluorescent Lewis Acid−Base Exciplexes and Triplexes between 3-Aminostilbenes and Aliphatic Amines

The influence of bromide and iodide ions on the sulfamethoxazole (SMX) halogenation during chlorination

Disinfection by-products (DBPs) were produced during the chlorination process, posing a threat to drinking water safety and human health. In the presence of bromide and iodide ions, brominated and iodinated DBPs will be generated, which might be more toxic than the parent compound. However, there are few studies on brominated and iodinated DBPs of antibiotics. Therefore, in this study, the fates of sulfamethoxazole (SMX) during chlorination in different systems (Blank; SMX + NaClO; SMX+ NaClO+ Br^-; SMX+ NaClO+I^-; SMX+ NaClO+ Br^- + I^-) were investigated. In different systems, all the reaction followed a pseudo-first-order kinetics, while the reaction rates of NaClO with SMX were different, the reaction rates were in order of SMX + NaClO + Br^- + I^- > SMX + NaClO + Br^- > SMX + NaClO + I^- > SMX + NaClO. When Br^- and I^- existed simultaneously, the reaction rate was the fastest. Iodide played an important role in oxidation and promoted the chlorination of SMX. SMX mainly underwent S-C cleavage, S-N hydrolysis, desulfonation, and substitution reactions. Nine disinfection by-products, including three reported for the first time, were identified using a non-targeted approach, and degradation pathways were proposed. Furthermore, EPI Suite software was applied to predict the environmental accumulation potential and environmental persistence of the degradation products. The results indicated that SMX and degradation products had little environmental accumulative potential and environmental persistence.

A non-target approach to identify disinfection byproducts of structurally similar sulfonamide antibiotics

There is growing concern over the formation of new types of disinfection byproducts (DBPs) from pharmaceuticals and other emerging contaminants during drinking water production. Free chlorine is a widely used disinfectant that reacts non-selectively with organic molecules to form a variety of byproducts. In this research, we aimed to investigate the DBPs formed from three structurally similar sulfonamide antibiotics (sulfamethoxazole, sulfathiazole, and sulfadimethoxine) to determine how chemical structure influences the types of chlorination reactions observed. We conducted free chlorination experiments and developed a non-target approach to extract masses from the experimental dataset that represent the masses of candidate DBPs. Structures were assigned to the candidate DBPs based on analytical data and knowledge of chlorine chemistry. Confidence levels were assigned to each proposed structure according to conventions in the field. In total, 11, 12, and 15 DBP structures were proposed for sulfamethoxazole, sulfathiazole, and sulfadimethoxine, respectively. The structures of the products suggest a variety of reaction types including chlorine substitution, SC cleavage, SN hydrolysis, desulfonation, oxidation/hydroxylation, and conjugation reactions. Some reaction types were common to all of the sulfonamide antibiotics, but unique reaction types were also observed for each sulfonamide antibiotic suggesting that selective prediction of DBP structures of other sulfonamide antibiotics based on chemical structure is unlikely to be possible based on these data alone. This research offers an approach to comprehensively identify DBPs of organic molecules and fills in much needed data on the formation of specific DBPs from three environmentally relevant sulfonamide antibiotics.

Triplet exciplexes as energy transfer photosensitisers

Experimental evidence is provided for the occurrence of triplet-triplet energy transfer from benzoylthiophene-indole exciplexes to naphthalenes with a remarkable stereodifferentiation; chiral recognition is also observed in the decay of the generated naphthalene triplets.