Degradation of cyclophosphamide during UV/chlorine reaction: Kinetics, byproducts, and their toxicity

Cyclophosphamide (CP) is a widely used anticancer drug and an immunosuppressant. Since CP is nonbiodegradable, it is hardly removed by the conventional wastewater treatment processes, resulting in continuous detection in surface water. In this study, the degradation of CP during the UV-B/chlorine reaction was investigated. CP was not degraded by UV-B photolysis and chlorination only but was effectively degraded in the UV-B/chlorine reaction with pseudo-first-order kinetics. Acidic pH conditions in the UV-B/chlorine reaction showed the most effective removal of CP. More than 56% of the CP was mineralized within 8 h of the reaction. Seven organic transformation products (TPs) (m/z = 141.01,192.10, 198.03, 212.01, 258.01, 274.00, and 276.02, respectively) and four inorganic byproducts (NH4+, NO3-, HCOO-, and PO43-) were identified using LC-qTOF/MS and ion chromatography, respectively. Microtox test based on bioluminescence inhibition showed that the toxicity inhibition increased to 88% as the reaction proceeded during the UV/chlorine reaction, probably due to the production of TPs, especially TP 258 (m/z = 258.01). The results of this study imply that the toxicity of TPs needs to be reduced when applying a UV-B/chlorination process to treat CP in water. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study found that the UV-B/chlorine reaction is effective in degrading cyclophosphamide (CP), especially under acidic pH conditions. Over 56% of CP was mineralized within 8 hours by the reaction. However, the transformation products produced may increase toxicity, emphasizing the need to reduce toxicity when using the UV-B/chlorination process for CP treatment in water.