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Degradation of octylphenol polyethoxylates with a long ethoxylate chain using the laccase-mediated systems

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Abstract

Alkylphenol polyethoxylates (APEOn) are the second-largest category of commercial nonionic surfactants, which are difficult to degrade naturally in the environment. This study examined the degradation of octylphenol polyethoxylate (OPEOn) by laccase and its laccase-mediated systems. The results showed that OPEOn was poorly degraded by laccase alone. 2, 2′-azino-bis [3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid] (ABTS), 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HBT), and 2, 2, 6, 6-tetramethylpiperidine-1-oxyl (TEMPO) were selected as the redox mediators. Experimental results also indicated that 52.4% of the initial OPEOn amount was degraded by laccase in the presence of TEMPO. The degradation efficiency was analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography. Furthermore, the structural characteristics of the degradation products were measured using matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and it could be found that the laccase-TEMPO system could gradually shorten the ethoxylate chain by oxidizing the primary hydroxyl group of OPEOn, thereby degrading the OPEOn of the macromolecule into small molecules. The maximum of the ion peak distributions of OPEOn decreased from n = 8 finally down to 3. The novel enzymatic system introduced by this study will become a promising alternative method for high-efficiency APEOn conversion and had great potential value in wastewater treatment.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

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Funding

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31771039 and 31300785).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Science and Technology of Eco-Textile, Ministry of Education, Jiangnan University, 1800 Lihu AVE, Wuxi, 214122, Jiangsu, China

    Dan Wang, Jiangfei Lou, Jin Xu, Jiugang Yuan, Qiang Wang, Ping Wang & Xuerong Fan

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  1. Dan Wang
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  2. Jiangfei Lou
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  3. Jin Xu
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  4. Jiugang Yuan
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  5. Qiang Wang
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  6. Ping Wang
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  7. Xuerong Fan
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Contributions

XF, QW, and PW contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by DW and JL. The project process was supervised by XF, JY, and JX. The first draft of the manuscript was written by DW and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Xuerong Fan.

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Wang, D., Lou, J., Xu, J. et al. Degradation of octylphenol polyethoxylates with a long ethoxylate chain using the laccase-mediated systems. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 37781–37792 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13400-z

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