Photo-induced degradation and toxicity change of decabromobiphenyl ethers (BDE-209) in water: Effects of dissolved organic matter and halide ions.

BDE-209 is a widely used brominated flame retardant that is ubiquitous in the aquatic environment, especially in marine water. However, photodegradation of BDE-209 in seawater is still not fully understood. In this work, the photodegradation kinetics of BDE-209 in water was studied and the effects of seawater dissolved organic matter (S-DOM) and halide ions (Cl-, Br-) were evaluated. S-DOM inhibited the degradation of BDE-209 through dynamic quenching and light shielding effect. However, with the coexistence of S-DOM, Cl- and Br-, the photodegradation of BDE-209 was significantly promoted. The promotional effect is attributed to the generation of excited triplet state S-DOM, singlet oxygen, and reactive halogen radicals. The results of density functional theory calculation showed that •Cl addition reaction on C-Br sites of BDE-209 is the main reaction pathway of BDE-209 with chlorine radical, which leads to the generation of mixed Cl/Br substituted intermediates. The acute toxicity and estrogenic effects of BDE-209 solution were enhanced during simulated sunlight irradiation. These results indicate that the environmental factors in seawater play important roles in the photodegradation of BDE-209, and contribute to the potential ecological risks of PBDEs in the marine environment. Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Citation

Fangyuan Cheng, Jiale He, Chao Li, Ying Lu, Ya-Nan Zhang, Jiao Qu. Photo-induced degradation and toxicity change of decabromobiphenyl ethers (BDE-209) in water: Effects of dissolved organic matter and halide ions. Journal of hazardous materials. 2021 Aug 15;416:125842

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PMID: 33866292

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