Adsorption of Sulfamethazine from Environmentally Relevant Aqueous Matrices onto Hypercrosslinked Adsorbent MN250

Novel CoOOH-based fluorescent aptasensor for rapid and sensitive detection of sulfamethazine in environmental samples

Sulfamethazine (SMZ) has been widely used in animal husbandry and exposed to water and soil environments, posing potential threat to human health and ecological environment. Hence, we designed a CoOOH-based aptasensor, the fluorescence resonance energy transfer between FAM-labeled aptamer and CoOOH was used to sensitively and selectively detect SMZ in water and soil environments. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations were used to predict binding mechanisms of SMZ and aptamer. Under optimized conditions, the aptasensor exhibited high sensitivity and selectivity with a linear range of 5-40 ng/mL and a limit of detection of 2.43 ng/mL. The recoveries of the aptasensor were 84.6-115.8% in water and soil samples with relative standard deviations below 9%, and the detection results were highly consistent with high-performance liquid chromatography. Therefore, this developed aptasensor was a reliable tool and could be applied to monitoring of SMZ in environmental samples.

An Ultrasensitive Label-Free Fluorescent Aptasensor Platform for Detection of Sulfamethazine

Purpose

Sulfamethazine (SMZ) exposed in the environment can enter the human body through the food chain and pose a serious threat to human health. Therefore, it is important to develop a rapid and sensitive method for detecting SMZ in environmental samples. In order to fastly and quantitatively detect SMZ in environmental samples, we developed a label-free fluorescent aptasensor based on specific aptamer (SMZ1S) and fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) between gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and rhodamine B (RhoB).

Methods

In the absence of SMZ, SMZ1S was adsorbed on the surface of AuNPs, which led to dispersion of the AuNPs in high concentration saline solution, thus effectively quenching the fluorescence of RhoB. With the increase of the SMZ concentration, the specific binding of SMZ1S and SMZ led to the aggregation of AuNPs in the presence of NaCl, which reduced the quenching of RhoB fluorescence and increased the fluorescence intensity. The sensitivity and linearity curve of the label-free fluorescent aptasensor were determined with different concentrations of sulfamethazine standard solutions. The specificity of this fluorescent aptasensor was determined by replacing sulfamethazine with different antibiotics. In addition, the actual water and soil samples were spiked and recovered.

Results

Under optimized conditions, the proposed fluorescent aptasensor demonstrated a good linear detection of SMZ in binding buffer from 1.25 ng mL^-1 to 40 ng mL^-1 and the limit of detection was 0.82 ng mL^-1. The spiked recoveries for SMZ were 94.4% to 108.8% with a relative standard deviation of 1.8-10.3% in water and soil samples, respectively.

Conclusion

The label-free fluorescent aptasensor investigated in the current study is a promising tool to detect and quantify SMZ in water and soil samples.

Electro-Fenton and photoelectro-Fenton degradation of sulfamethazine using an active gas diffusion electrode without aeration

A novel superhydrophobic gas diffusion electrode based on carbon black (CB)- polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) modified graphite felt cathode was prepared to increase oxygen mass transfer efficiency and produce hydrogen peroxide at the gas-liquid-solid three-phase interface without aeration. The gas diffusion electrode system was further tested for the degradation of sulfamethazine (SMT) by electro-Fenton (EF) and photoelectro-Fenton (PEF). In the EF process, SMT was removed effectively, but the mineralization degree was not high due to the generation of organic acids which were difficult to be further degraded. While in the PEF process, organic contaminant can be destroyed by the combined action of Fe²⁺/H₂O₂, UV/H₂O₂ and UV radiation, and more efficient mineralization (>83.5%) at low current (50 mA) was attained, which might be attributed to the high H₂O₂ utilization (70-90%), rapid regeneration of Fe²⁺ and photolysis of intermediates. In addition, it was verified that the PEF system had a good adaptability to pH and pollutant concentration. Compared with aeration system, the use of this active gas diffusion cathode in electrochemical advanced oxidation processes significantly reduced energy consumption.

Determination and toxicity evaluation of the generated byproducts from sulfamethazine degradation during catalytic oxidation process

Sulfamethazine (SMZ), a kind of sulfonamide antibiotics, can exist for a long periods of time and has been widely detected in the environment, which could pose a potential health threat to human beings. In this study, sludge-derived carbon (SC) catalyst was modified and applied to degrade SMZ during catalytic oxidation process. Degradation products and possible transformation pathways were investigated based on data of GC-MS. The toxicity evolution of SMZ degradation after catalytic oxidation process was tested with zebrafish and microbial degradation respirometer. As a consequence, SC modified with nitric acid (SCHNO₃) exhibited highly catalytic efficiency reached 92.2% SMZ conversion and 75.2% total organic carbon (TOC) removal rate after 480 min. Ten kinds of possible products were identified by GC-MS during degradation process of SMZ, indicating two possible pathways. No pronounced malformation was observed in the toxicity experiments with zebrafish until 120 h post fertilization (hpf). However, further analysis showed that zebrafish incubated with SMZ solution had higher mortality, lower hatching rate, slower spontaneous movement and shorter body length, compared with the group used normal nutrient solution, while the water after treatment had lower toxicity effects on zebrafish. The toxicity experiments with microbial degradation respirometer showed that SMZ solution had lower value of oxygen uptake, which indicated that SMZ solution had higher values of toxicity and inhibition of pharmaceutical compounds. This study provides a catalyst with low cost and high catalytic efficiency for degradation process of SMZ and gives a deeper insight into the ecotoxicity of treated water.

Adsorption of micropollutants present in surface waters onto polymeric resins: Impact of resin type and water matrix on performance

The occurrence of micropollutants in water resources is raising substantial concerns, worldwide. These pollutants may have adverse impacts on the aquatic ecosystem and human health. Even though activated carbon is commonly used as an adsorbent to remove micropollutants from water, its low removal of hydrophilic components, energy-intensive regeneration procedure and slow adsorption can impair its applicability. Polymeric resins have been suggested as an effective alternative adsorbent due to their high porosity and accessible adsorption sites, significant adsorption concentration and stable chemical properties. In this work, we evaluated the performance of five commercially available polymeric resins (including two ion exchange resins) for the removal of nine selected micropollutants in water. More specifically, we investigated the effect of polymeric resin type and concentration, contact time and water matrix on the removal efficiency of five pharmaceuticals, two pesticides and two endocrine disruptors of high current concern (diclofenac, sulfamethoxazole, fluoxetine, caffeine, carbamazepine, 17-β estradiol, norethindrone, atrazine and desesthylatrazine). Results presented herein indicated that two hydrophobic polymeric resins can effectively adsorb over 80% of the targeted micropollutants within 30 min when the resin concentration was higher than 2.5 mL L^-1. The adsorption data were well described with the Freundlich isotherm and the pseudo-second order kinetic model very well described the kinetic process of the selected micropollutants onto the polymeric resins. Moreover, we observed that increasing the synthetic water temperature from 4 to 22 °C led to a marginally higher micropollutant uptake and the presence of natural organic matter had no noted impact on the efficiency of the resins in removing the tested micropollutants when the resin dosage was 5.4 mL L^-1. On the basis of these promising results, we conclude that polymeric resins are a promising alternative to activated carbon for micropollutants sorption in drinking water treatment.