Abstract
In order to investigate the fate and toxicity to fish of nonionic surfactants in the environment, biodegradation tests of river sediments and river water were carried out. In the biodegradation test of river sediments, residual surfactants in the water phase and sediments were analyzed by the colorimetric cobalt-thiocyanate method (CTAS) and high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with a fluorimetric detector. Two kinds of nonionic surfactants, polyoxyethylene nonylphenol ether (C9APE9) and polyoxyethylene alcohol ether (C12AE7), were degraded by river sediments under both stirring and standing conditions, detected by CTAS and HPLC measurements. There was little difference between the time-course of both surfactants measured by CTAS and HPLC in the water phase. Although the adsorption of both surfactants on sediments was low, most of both surfactants adsorbed on sediments were biodegraded during the test period. Nonylphenolmonoethoxy acetate (Met 2) and nonylphenolacetate (Met 1) were identified as biodegradation intermediates using preparative HPLC and mass spectrometric analysis.
In the river die-away test of C9APF9, the reduction of toxicity to fish of C9APE9 was observed in the course of biodegradation (after 10 days). LC50 of primary biodegradation intermediates, Met 1 and 2, was almost at the same level as that of C9APE9. This result suggests that the reduction of toxicity to fish is due to further biodegradation of C9APE9 through Met 1 and 2.
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Yoshimura, K. Biodegradation and fish toxicity of nonionic surfactants. J Am Oil Chem Soc 63, 1590–1596 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02553093
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02553093