Degradation of prometryn in Ruditapes philippinarum using ozonation: Influencing factors, degradation mechanism, pathway and toxicity assessment

Abstract

In recent years, prometryn was utilized as watergrass remover in the aquaculture industry, resulting in the accumulated residual in the aquatic products. The present study focuses on the ozone degradation of prometryn in the Ruditapes philippinarum. The ozone concentration in water increased along with the injection time (60min). The contents of hydroxyl (·OH) and superoxide (O2·-) radicals increased along with the ozone injection time. The effects of temperature, pH, prometryn initial concentration and ozone concentration on the removal efficiency of prometryn were evaluated. The maximum removal efficiency of 86.12% was obtained under the conditions of pH 7, prometryn initial concentration 0.05 mg/kg and the ozone concentration 4.2 mg/L at 28 °C for 30 min. Ion chromatography (IC) and Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy results show that the S and N atoms in the outer layer of the triazine ring during the prometryn degradation process were oxidized and removed. A total of 30 intermediate compounds were identified using the gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) method. Combined with the IC and FT-IR results, three possible degradation pathways of prometryn were proposed. The prometryn was finally degraded into some small molecules with reduced toxicity by 63.16% for 120 min ozonization treatment. Overall, our work provides a novel approach for prometryn degradation in Ruditapes philippinarum, which can be extended for removing the residues of agricultural and veterinary drugs in other aquatic products.