Study of pharmaceuticals fate in the aquatic environment using microcosm experiments and SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS

Resumo

Pharmaceuticals are considered contaminants of emerging concern (CEC). They may reach the aquatic environment by the discharge of treated sewages from wastewater treatment plants. The fate of CEC is still not completely understood and microcosm models has been employed for the evaluation of the fate and for ecotoxicological assays. Laboratory sediment/water microcosms allow a better understanding of biotic and abiotic processes involved in the fate of chemicals in water bodies. In this work, a multiresidue SPE-UHPLC-MS/MS method (LOQ 0.1 µg/L) was developed and validated to quantify three CEC (carbamazepine, sulfaquinoxaline and fexofenadine). The fate of these CEC was evaluated using a microcosm with sediment and surface water collected from the Rio Atibiaia.