Degradation and toxicity of bisphenol A and S during cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment

TY - JOUR

T1 - Degradation and toxicity of bisphenol A and S during cold atmospheric pressure plasma treatment

AU - Kovačič, Ana

AU - Modic, Martina

AU - Hojnik, Nataša

AU - Štampar, Martina

AU - Gulin, Martin Rafael

AU - Nannou, Christina

AU - Koronaiou, Lelouda Athanasia

AU - Heath, David

AU - Walsh, James L.

AU - Žegura, Bojana

AU - Lambropoulou, Dimitra

AU - Cvelbar, Uroš

AU - Heath, Ester

N1 - Funding Information: The study was performed with financial assistance to different researchers by the Slovenian Research Agency (ARRS), namely programs P1- 0143 and P1-0417 and research projects N1-0143 , J7-3155 , J2-4427 , L7-4422 , J2-4451 , and J4-1770 , Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation (HFRI) under the 4th Call for HFRI PhD Fellowships (Fellowship 11177 , Project 75686 ) and from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (ESPRC): Grant Numbers EP/R041849/1 , EP/NO21347/1 , and EP/J005894/1 . Publisher Copyright: © 2023

PY - 2023/7/15

Y1 - 2023/7/15

N2 - Bisphenols are widely recognised as toxic compounds that potentially threaten the environment and public health. Here we report the use of cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) to remove bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS) from aqueous systems. Additionally, methanol was added as a radical scavenger to simulate environmental conditions. After 480 s of plasma treatment, 15–25 % of BPA remained, compared to > 80 % of BPS, with BPA being removed faster (-kt = 3.4 ms−1, half-life = 210 s) than BPS (-kt = 0.15 ms−1, half-life 4700 s). The characterisation of plasma species showed that adding a radical scavenger affects the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, resulting in a lower amount of ˙OH, H2O2, and NO2- but a similar amount of NO3-. In addition, a non-target approach enabled the elucidation of 11 BPA and five BPS transformation products. From this data, transformation pathways were proposed for both compounds, indicating nitrification with further cleavage, demethylation, and carboxylation, and the coupling of smaller bisphenol intermediates. The toxicological characterisation of the in vitro HepG2 cell model has shown that the mixture of transformation products formed during CAP is less toxic than BPA and BPS, indicating that CAP is effective in safely degrading bisphenols.

AB - Bisphenols are widely recognised as toxic compounds that potentially threaten the environment and public health. Here we report the use of cold atmospheric pressure plasma (CAP) to remove bisphenol A (BPA) and bisphenol S (BPS) from aqueous systems. Additionally, methanol was added as a radical scavenger to simulate environmental conditions. After 480 s of plasma treatment, 15–25 % of BPA remained, compared to > 80 % of BPS, with BPA being removed faster (-kt = 3.4 ms−1, half-life = 210 s) than BPS (-kt = 0.15 ms−1, half-life 4700 s). The characterisation of plasma species showed that adding a radical scavenger affects the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species, resulting in a lower amount of ˙OH, H2O2, and NO2- but a similar amount of NO3-. In addition, a non-target approach enabled the elucidation of 11 BPA and five BPS transformation products. From this data, transformation pathways were proposed for both compounds, indicating nitrification with further cleavage, demethylation, and carboxylation, and the coupling of smaller bisphenol intermediates. The toxicological characterisation of the in vitro HepG2 cell model has shown that the mixture of transformation products formed during CAP is less toxic than BPA and BPS, indicating that CAP is effective in safely degrading bisphenols.

KW - Bisphenol

KW - Cold atmospheric pressure plasma

KW - Cytotoxicity

KW - Genotoxicity

KW - Transformation product and pathway

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85153360035&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131478

DO - 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2023.131478

M3 - Article

C2 - 37116332

AN - SCOPUS:85153360035

SN - 0304-3894

VL - 454

JO - Journal of hazardous materials

JF - Journal of hazardous materials

M1 - 131478

ER -