Advancements in waste water characterization through NMR spectroscopy: review

Abstract

There are numerous organic pollutants that lead to several types of ecosystem damage and threaten human health. Wastewater treatment plants are responsible for the removal of natural and anthropogenic pollutants from the sewage, and because of this function, they play an important role in the protection of human health and the environment. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has proven to be a valuable analytical tool as a result of its versatility in characterizing both overall chemical composition as well as individual species in a wide range of mixtures. In addition, NMR can provide physical information (rigidity, dynamics, etc.) as well as permit in depth quantification. Hyphenation with other techniques such as liquid chromatography, solid phase extraction and mass spectrometry creates unprecedented capabilities for the identification of novel and unknown chemical species. Thus, NMR is widely used in the study of different components of wastewater, such as complex organic matter (fulvic and humic acids), sludge and wastewater. This review article summarizes the NMR spectroscopy methods applied in studies of organic pollutants from wastewater to provide an exhaustive review of the literature as well as a guide for readers interested in this topic.

Development of an in Situ NMR Photoreactor To Study Environmental Photochemistry

“…To demonstrate the application of photochemical NMR spectroscopy to a more complex environmental mixture, the water-soluble fraction (WSF) of crude oil was studied. Crude oil is a complex heterogeneous mixture containing >30000 different hydrocarbon molecules (saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes), some of which contain aromatic rings and heteroatoms, as observed by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS). ,− Oil spills are a significant environmental problem where toxic chemicals are released into the environment. − Certain gasoline components are resistant to biodegradation, but are photoliable . Here, the fate of water-soluble oil components upon light exposure using the HPX-2000 and the Suntest light sources was investigated.…”

The exposome paradigm to predict environmental health in terms of systemic homeostasis and resource balance based on NMR data science

“… 307 The application of NMR spectroscopy to characterization of wastewater has been previously reviewed. 308 Here we focus on environmental metabolomics studies of microbial ecosystems utilized in industrial processes such as wastewater treatment and bioremediation. Anaerobic microbial ecosystems are particularly useful in industry because they can degrade supermolecular assemblies into small molecules.…”

Abatement of the ecotoxicological risk of landfill leachate by heterogeneous Fenton-like oxidation

“…In other words, 1 H NMR spectroscopy can be efficiently used to characterize functional groups present in an organic molecule and permit to determine the structure of a target substances. 1 H NMR is a valuable analytical tool for the characterization of chemical compounds and has been widely used for the characterization of different components of wastewater, sludge and wastewater (Alves Filho et al 2015 ). In characterization of fulvic and humic acids in wastewater and sludge, the 1 H NMR spectra are dominated by broad unresolved humps characteristic of complex mixtures, with some sharp signals indicative of specific molecules or structures (Alves Filho et al 2015 ; Ma et al 2001 ; Polak et al 2005 ).…”