Environmental Processes, Ecotoxicity and Treatment of Emerging Pollutants

A special issue of Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304). This special issue belongs to the section "Emerging Contaminants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2024) | Viewed by 5097

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China
Interests: organic pollutants; advanced oxidation; photochemical transformation; photocatalysis; theoretical calculation
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Guest Editor
School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
Interests: advanced oxidation techniques; photocatalysis; ozonation; environmental theoretical chemistry; QSAR
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent years, the migration, transformation and fate of emerging pollutants in the environment and their impact on the ecosystem have become the focus of global environmental science. In order to further promote research on the environmental processes of emerging pollutants, we have initiated this Special Issue.

This Special Issue, entitled "Environmental Processes, Ecotoxicity and Treatment of Emerging Pollutants", aims to collect research papers on the behavior, toxic effects and control strategies of emerging pollutants such as antibiotics, endocrine disruptors, microplastics, perfluorinated compounds and other persistent organic pollutants in the environment. Research areas include, but are not limited to, the environmental processes, ecotoxicological effects, risk assessment and related treatment processes of emerging pollutants in environmental media such as water, soil and the atmosphere.

We welcome the following types of submissions:

  1. Studies on the adsorption behavior, photochemical transformation, and biotransformation of emerging pollutants in the environment.
  2. Ecotoxicological effects and risk assessment of emerging pollutants.
  3. Research on chemical and other treatment processes for emerging pollutants.

Dr. Ruijuan Qu
Prof. Dr. Zunyao Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • emerging pollutants
  • environmental processes
  • ecotoxicity
  • treatment

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

19 pages, 4557 KiB  
Article
Ecotoxicological Properties of Pure and Phosphorus-Containing Graphene Oxide Bidimensional Sheets in Daphnia magna
by F. Mendoza-Villa, Noemi-Raquel Checca-Huaman, Tainara L. G. Costa, Jair C. C. Freitas and Juan A. Ramos-Guivar
Toxics 2024, 12(4), 252; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12040252 - 29 Mar 2024
Viewed by 1259
Abstract
In this work, the synthesis and structural, thermal, vibrational, morphological, and electronic characterization of 2D-like pure graphene oxide (GO) and phosphorus-containing graphene oxide (GOP) sheets were investigated. The average thicknesses of GO and GOP were 0.8 μm and 3.1 μm, respectively. The electron [...] Read more.
In this work, the synthesis and structural, thermal, vibrational, morphological, and electronic characterization of 2D-like pure graphene oxide (GO) and phosphorus-containing graphene oxide (GOP) sheets were investigated. The average thicknesses of GO and GOP were 0.8 μm and 3.1 μm, respectively. The electron energy-loss spectroscopy spectra were used to analyze the differences in the C-K and O-K energy edge bands between GO and GOP. In addition, colloidal stability was studied using dynamic light scattering and zeta potential physicochemical techniques, determining that as the concentration increases, the hydrodynamic diameter and electrostatic stability of GO and GOP increase. The colloidal stability was quite important to ensure the interaction between the suspended solid phase and the biomarker. The 2D-like materials were used to determine their ecotoxicological properties, such as the medium lethal concentration, a crucial parameter for understanding ecotoxicity. Acute ecotoxicity experiments (24 h) were conducted in triplicate to obtain robust statistics, with corresponding mean lethal concentration (LC50) of 11.4 mg L1 and 9.8 mg L1 for GO and GOP, respectively. The morphological parameters of GO and GOP were compared with a negative control. However, only the case of GO was analyzed, since the Daphnia magna (D. magna) set exposed to GOP died before completing the time required for morphological analysis. The results indicate that the GOP sample is more toxic than the GO, both during and after exposure. Furthermore, the morphological parameters with the greatest statistically significant changes (p<0.05) were associated with the heart and body, while the eye and tail showed less significant changes. Full article
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17 pages, 2021 KiB  
Article
Ecotoxicological Characterization of Lithium as a “Timebomb” in Aquatic Systems: Tadpoles of the South American Toad Rhinella arenarum (Hensel, 1867) as Model Organisms
by Paola M. Peltzer, Ana P. Cuzziol Boccioni, Andrés M. Attademo, María F. Simoniello, Germán Lener and Rafael C. Lajmanovich
Toxics 2024, 12(3), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/toxics12030176 - 25 Feb 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 3467
Abstract
The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute lethality and chronic sublethal effects of lithium (Li) on Rhinella arenarum tadpoles as model organisms. First a 96 h toxicity assay was performed by exposing tadpoles to Li concentrations from 44.08 to 412.5 [...] Read more.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the acute lethality and chronic sublethal effects of lithium (Li) on Rhinella arenarum tadpoles as model organisms. First a 96 h toxicity assay was performed by exposing tadpoles to Li concentrations from 44.08 to 412.5 mg L−1 to estimate the mortality, and lethal and sublethal effects. Another bioassay was carried out by exposing tadpoles to two environmentally relevant Li concentrations (2.5 and 20 mg L−1) for one and two weeks. The sublethal effects of Li on tadpoles were evaluated by analyzing biochemical, genotoxic, and physiological biomarkers. The mortality in Li-exposed tadpoles increased over time. The median lethal concentration (LC50) ranged from 319.52 (281.21–363.05) mg L−1 at 48 h to 66.92 (52.76–84.89) mg L−1 at 96 h. Exposure to Li at 2.5 and 20 mg L−1 induced alterations in enzymes related to detoxification, antioxidant, and hepatic mechanisms, endocrine disruption of thyroid hormones, genotoxicity, and effects on the physiology of the heart and gastrointestinal systems. Tadpoles exposed to the highest concentration in the chronic bioassay (20 mg L−1 Li), which is the concentration commonly recorded in Li mining sites, showed significant mortality after one week of exposure. These results warn about the high ecotoxicological risk of Li as a contaminant of emerging concern for amphibians. Full article
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