Monitoring ecotoxicity of disperse red 1 dye during photo-Fenton degradation.

The present work assessed the ecotoxicity of the commercially available form of the azo dye Disperse Red 1 (DR1) and the main degradation products generated during photo-Fenton degradation. The acute toxicity tests with the microcrustacean Daphnia similis showed that toxicity increased after 10 min of treatment, when 35% of the original concentration of the dye has been degraded but without decrease in total organic carbon concentration (TOC). The increase of toxicity was a consequence of generation of degradation products of higher toxicity than DR1, which achieved maximum concentration after 10 min reaction.