Toxicity of butylone and its enantiomers to Daphnia magna and its degradation by advanced oxidation technologies

• Autor(a) principal: Carvalho, Ana Rita Teixeira
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.22/24664
• topic: Emerging contaminants; Psychoactive substances; Synthetic cathinones; Ecotoxicity; Aquatic organisms; Wastewaters

Butylone (BTL) is a chiral synnthetic cathinone available as a racemate and reported in wastewaters. However, there are no studies on its impact on ecosystems and possible enantioselectivity. The objective of this woek was to evaluate: (i) the possible ecotoxicological effects on Daphnia magna of BTL in the form of racemate or its (R)- and (S)- enantiomers; and (ii) the efficiency of advanced oxidation tchnologies (AOT) in the removal and toxicity of BTL and its by-products in wastewaters. Enantiomers were sseparated by liquid chromatography using a chiral semi-preparative column, being obtained with high enantiomeric purity (˃97%). For toxicological studies, daphnia were exposed to concentrations of 0.1; 1 or 10 µg L-1 of the racemate or 0.1 or µg L-1 of each enatiomer. There were a significant morphophysiological, biochemical and repoductive changes depending on the formo f the substance and the development of the organism (juvenile or adult). Different AOTs (ozonation; O3; ultravioleta, UV; and UV/ O3) were apllied to wastewater spiked with BTL and acute toxicity tests (24 and 48h) demonstrated as a higher toxicity reduction of BTL-spiked effluents, with the highest reduction observed after UV and O3, respectively after 24 and 48h of exposure.