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Bromide induced the formation of brominated halonitromethanes from aspartic acid in the UV/chlorine disinfection process

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Abstract

Brominated halonitromethanes (Br-HNMs) are generated in water disinfection processes and present high toxicity to human health. This work used aspartic acid (ASP) as the precursor to reveal that bromide (Br−) induced the production of Br-HNMs in the UV/chlorine disinfection process. Consequently, six Br-HNMs were identified, and their yields presented an increasing and then declining evolution over the reaction time from 0 to 15 min. Also, the total Br-HNMs yield reached the maximum of 251.1 μg L−1 at 5 min and then declined to 107.1 μg L−1. The total Br-HNMs yield increased from 2.40 to 251.14 μg L−1 with the increase of Cl2:Br− ratios from 0.25 to 3.0 by increasing free chlorine dosage with a fixed Br− concentration, and it increased from 207.59 to 251.14 μg L−1 and then decreased to 93.44 μg L−1 with the increase of Cl2:Br− ratio from 1.0 to 3.6 by increasing Br− concentration with a fixed free chlorine dosage. Besides, the total Br-HNMs yield reached the highest value (251.14 μg L−1) at pH 7.0 and the lowest value (74.20 μg L−1) at pH 8.0. Subsequently, the possible reaction mechanism of Br-HNMs generated from ASP was deduced, and the changes in toxicity of Br-HNMs also followed an increasing and then declining trend, closely relating to Br-HNMs yields and Br− utilization. This work explored and illustrated the yields, influence factors, reaction mechanisms, and toxicity of Br-HNMs formed from Br− containing ASP water during UV/chlorine disinfection, which might help to control Br-HNMs formation.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22076023 and 21677032) and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. KYCX23_0284). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 22076023 and 21677032) and Postgraduate Research & Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (No. KYCX23_0284). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

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  1. Department of Municipal Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Tao Wang, Lin Deng, Wenjuan Dai, Chaoqun Tan, Jun Hu & Rajendra Prasad Singh

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  1. Tao Wang
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  2. Lin Deng
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  3. Wenjuan Dai
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TW: conceptualization, software, visualization, writing—original draft, data curation, formal analysis. LD: methodology, validation, resources, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration, writing—review & editing. WD: conceptualization, investigation, resources. CT: conceptualization, writing—review & editing. JH: conceptualization, writing—review & editing. RPS: supervision, writing—review & editing. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Lin Deng.

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Wang, T., Deng, L., Dai, W. et al. Bromide induced the formation of brominated halonitromethanes from aspartic acid in the UV/chlorine disinfection process. Environ Geochem Health 46, 54 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-024-01854-2

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