Determination Of Phthalate Esters And Their Metabolites In Environmental Water And Phtodegradation Of Dehp

Phthalate esters and their metabolites, a group of endocrine disrupting compounds, have attracted the scientific and public attention because they are widely used and considered as ubiquitous environmental pollutants. In this study, a simple and efficient liquid-liquid extraction combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry method was developed for the determination of trace level phthalate esters and their metabolites in environmental water samples. The developed method has been successfully applied for determination of phthalates and their metabolites in real natural water samples. The results shown that DIBP,DBP and DEHP were detected in real water samples collected from Wen-Rui-Tang River and rain water at Wenzhou City.This study also investigated that the photodegradation of bis(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) in aqueous solutions and the effects of natural photoreactive constituents such as nitrate (NO3-), ferric ions(Fe3+), chloride ion(Cl-) and fulvic acid (FA) under the simulated sunlight.The direct photodegradation of DEHP decreased with increasing pH in the range of 3.0 to 9.0. The presence of NO3-, Fe3+and Cl- facilitated the photochemical loss of DEHP in the aqueous solutions. FA could act as photosensitizer, light screening agent and free radical quencher. The quenching experiments verified that hydroxyl radicals( OH) were mainly responsible for indirect photodegradation of DEHP in the nitrate and ferric ion solutions. FA can absorb light energy to produce 3FA* and enhance the photochemical degradation of DEHP.