Remediation of 1-Nitropyrene in Soil: A Comparative Study with Pyrene

Abstract

Nitrated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (nPAHs) are ubiquitous environmental pollutants, which exhibits higher toxicity than their corresponding parent PAHs (pPAHs). Recent studies demonstrated that the nPAHs could represent major soil pollution, however the remediation of nPAHs has been rarely reported. In this study, biological, physical, and chemical methods have been applied to remove 1-nitropyrene, the model nPAH, in contaminated soil. A comparative study with pyrene has also been investigated and evaluated. The results suggest that the physical method with activated carbon is an efficient and economical approach, removing 88.1% and 78.0% of 1-nitropyrene and pyrene respectively, within one day. The zero-valent ion has a similar removal performance on 1-nitropyrene (83.1%), converting 1-nitropyrene to 1-aminopyrene in soil via chemical reduction and decreasing the mutagenicity and carcinogenicity of 1-nitropyrene. Biological remediation that employs scallion as a plant model can reduce 55.0% of 1-nitropyrene in soil (from 39.6 to 17.8 μg/kg), while 77.9% of pyrene can be removed by plant. This indicates that nPAHs might be more persistent than corresponding pPAHs in soil. It is anticipated that this study could draw public awareness of nitro-derivatives of pPAHs and provide remediation technologies of carcinogenic nPAHs in soil.

Novel Insights into the Promoted Accumulation of Nitro-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in the Roots of Legume Plants

“…Compared with parent PAHs, sub-PAHs have various groups on the benzene rings of PAHs, and thus their physicochemical properties are different from those of PAHs. Although the root accumulation of sub-PAHs has been reported previously, 32 it remains unclear how the substituted groups affect their accumulation in plant roots. Nitrogen, one of the most important nutrients for plants, especially legume plants, plays a critical role in their growth and development.…”

Sulfinylation on Superoxide Dismutase 1 Cys111: Novel Mechanism for 1‐Nitropyrene to Promote Acute Reactive Oxygen Species Generation

“…[ 17,18 ] Extensive studies indicated that the toxicity of 1‐NP and 3‐NF caused by DNA damage and formation of DNA adducts, changed in the expression of gene and protein, alternation of ROS and calcium signaling. [ 19–22 ] However, given the significant toxicity and potential carcinogenesis of 1‐NP, [ 23,24 ] alternative working mechanism might exist.…”