Department of Chemistry, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro, Gávea, RJ, Brazil.
Arch Environ Contam Toxicol. 2010 Jul;59(1):20-30. doi: 10.1007/s00244-009-9451-3. Epub 2010 Jan 7.
Perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) are manmade, stable perfluorosurfactants. The properties of perfluoroalkylated compounds that cause them to persist in the environment are also the properties that made them attractive compounds for industrial usage for over 50 years. Due to the unique properties of the carbon-fluorine bond and the polarity of perfluoroalkyl groups, potential substitutes to replace perfluorinated surfactants in most cases continue to be perfluoroalkyl based. Thus, issues of persistence in the environment remain. There is a need to test emerging new substitute surfactants for biodegradability. This study involved degradability measurements of emerging perfluorinated surfactant substitutes. The stability of the substitutes of perfluorinated surfactants was tested by employing advanced oxidation processes, which were based on degradation by ultraviolet lamp, hydrogen peroxide, or both, followed by conventional tests, among them an automated method based on the manometric respirometry test (OECD 301 F; OxiTop), closed-bottle test (OECD 301 D), and standardized fixed-bed bioreactor on perfluorobutane sulfonate, fluorosurfactant Zonyl, two fluoraliphatic esters (NOVEC FC-4430 and NOVEC FC-4432), and 10-(trifluoromethoxy) decane 1 sulfonate. Most of these new surfactants are well established in the marketplace and have been used in several applications as alternatives to PFOS- and PFOA-based surfactants. Ready biodegradation tests for fluoroaliphatic esters, the fluorosurfactant Zonyl, perfluorobutane sulfonate, and 10-(trifluoromethoxy) decane-1-sulfonate using the manometric respirometry test (OxiTop) did not meet the ready biodegradability test criteria. However, 10-(trifluoromethoxy) decane-1-sulfonate was observed to be degradable when a standardized fixed-bed bioreactor test was applied.
全氟辛酸（PFOA）和全氟辛烷磺酸（PFOS）是人为合成的、稳定的全氟表面活性剂。使全氟烷基化合物在环境中持久存在的特性，也是它们在 50 多年来吸引工业使用的特性。由于碳氟键的独特性质和全氟烷基的极性，在大多数情况下，潜在的替代品要取代全氟表面活性剂仍然是基于全氟烷基的。因此，环境持久性问题仍然存在。有必要测试新兴的替代表面活性剂的生物降解性。本研究涉及新兴全氟表面活性剂替代品的可降解性测量。通过采用先进的氧化工艺来测试全氟表面活性剂替代品的稳定性，这些氧化工艺基于紫外线灯、过氧化氢或两者的降解，然后进行常规测试，其中包括一种基于测压呼吸计测试（OECD 301 F；OxiTop）的自动化方法、封闭瓶测试（OECD 301 D）和基于全氟丁烷磺酸、氟表面活性剂 Zonyl、两种氟脂肪族酯（NOVEC FC-4430 和 NOVEC FC-4432）以及 10-（三氟甲氧基）癸烷-1-磺酸盐的标准化固定床生物反应器。这些新的表面活性剂中的大多数在市场上已经得到广泛应用，并已被用作 PFOS 和 PFOA 基表面活性剂的替代品，应用于多个领域。使用测压呼吸计测试（OxiTop）对氟脂肪族酯、氟表面活性剂 Zonyl、全氟丁烷磺酸和 10-（三氟甲氧基）癸烷-1-磺酸盐进行的氟脂肪族酯、氟表面活性剂 Zonyl、全氟丁烷磺酸和 10-（三氟甲氧基）癸烷-1-磺酸盐的快速生物降解测试未达到快速生物降解测试标准。然而，当应用标准化固定床生物反应器测试时，观察到 10-（三氟甲氧基）癸烷-1-磺酸盐可降解。
