Discovery of novel benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers in surface water

Yuanchen Chen; Ruyue Guo; Kaizhen Liao; Wenfei Yu; Pengfei Wu; Hangbiao Jin

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2024.121709

Discovery of novel benzotriazole ultraviolet stabilizers in surface water

Water Res. 2024 May 3:257:121709. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121709. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Yuanchen Chen¹, Ruyue Guo¹, Kaizhen Liao¹, Wenfei Yu¹, Pengfei Wu², Hangbiao Jin³

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology for Industrial Pollution Control of Zhejiang Province, College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310032, PR China.
² Co-Innovation Center for Sustainable Forestry in Southern China, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210037, PR China.
³ Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology for Industrial Pollution Control of Zhejiang Province, College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310032, PR China. Electronic address: hangbiao@zjut.edu.cn.

PMID: 38728781
DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2024.121709

Abstract

The comprehensive understanding of the occurrence of benzotriazole UV stabilizers (BZT-UVs) in environmental surface water is imperative due to their widespread application and potential aquatic toxicity. We conducted an analysis of 13 traditional BZT-UVs in surface water samples collected from Taihu Lake (TL, n = 23) and Qiantang River (QR, n = 22) in China. The results revealed that 5‑chloro-2-(3,5-di-tertbutyl-2-hydroxyphenyl)-benzotriazole (UV-327) was consistently the predominant BZT-UV in water samples from TL (mean 16 ng/L; detection frequency 96 %) and QR (14 ng/L; 91 %). Furthermore, we developed a characteristic fragment ion-based strategy to screen and identify unknown BZT-UVs in collected surface water, utilizing a high-resolution mass spectrometer. A total of seven novel BZT-UVs were discovered in water samples, and their chemical structures were proposed. Four of these novel BZT-UVs were further confirmed with standards provided by industrial manufacturers. Semi-quantitative analysis revealed that among discovered novel BZT-UVs, 2-(2‑hydroxy-3‑tert‑butyl‑5-methylphenyl)-benzotriazole was consistently the predominant novel BZT-UV in TL (mean 4.1 ng/L, detection frequency 70 %) and QR (2.8 ng/L, 77 %) water. In TL water, the second predominant novel BZT-UV was 2-(3-allyl-2‑hydroxy-5-methylphenyl)-2H-benzotriazole (mean 3.9 ng/L, <LOD-11 ng/L), while in QR water, it was 3-(2H-benzotriazol-2-yl)-5-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-4‑hydroxy-benzotriazole (mean 2.1 ng/L, <LOD-3.6 ng/L). Subsequent studies are needed to elucidate the environmental source, behaviors, and aquatic toxicity of these newly identified BZT-UVs in surface water.

Keywords: Benzotriazole UV stabilizers; Non-target analysis; Novel BZT-UVs; Surface water; UV-327.