Occurrence of Pharmaceutical Micropollutants in Lake Nahuel Huapi, Argentine Patagonia.

Tourism is one of the most important activities for the economy of Nor Patagonia Argentina. In Bariloche City, located on the shores of Lake Nahuel Huapi, both the permanent and the temporary populations have increased significantly in recent decades, and this has not necessarily been accompanied by an improvement in sewage networks. Emerging micropollutants such as pharmaceutical compounds reach aquatic systems directly, in the absence of a domestic sewage network, or through effluents from wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), which do not efficiently remove these substances and represent a major threat to the environment.

Insights of competitive adsorption on activated carbon of binary caffeine and diclofenac solutions.

A commercial activated carbon (AC), obtained from peanut shells, was characterized and tested as adsorbent for the removal of the pharmaceutical products caffeine (CF) and diclofenac (DIC), which were used as model emerging contaminants. Nitrogen adsorption, XRD, SEM, FT-IR spectroscopy, and chemical analyses were typical of ACs, and Boehm titrations, calculations of surface sites distributions and zeta potential measurements indicated that reactions of deprotonable oxygenated groups at the AC surface lead to an isoelectric point of 3.2.

Synthesis and in vitro testing of thermoresponsive polymer-grafted core-shell magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles for efficient controlled and targeted drug delivery.

In this work, thermoresponsive polymer grafted magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles were prepared, fully characterized and tested as controlled drug delivery systems. For this purpose, iron oxide nanoparticles coated with mesoporous silica shell were grafted with poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-3-(methacryloxypropyl)trimethoxysilane) (PNIPAM-co-MPS). The grafting and polymerization on the as-prepared nanoparticles were performed in one-step procedure.

Chemical characterization and toxicity of water-accommodated fraction of oil on the South American native species Hyalella curvispina.

Chemical and toxicological crude oil analysis was performed on water-accommodated fraction of oil (WAF). This study characterized the chemical composition of WAF and its dissipation over a period of 192 h. Acute (96 h) and chronic (14 d) toxicity of WAF were evaluated on Hyalella curvispina from both reference (Los Barreales lake, LB) and hydrocarbon-contaminated (Durán stream, DS) sites.

An integrated approach for assessing the migration behavior of chlorpyrifos and carbaryl in the unsaturated soil zone.

Chlorpyrifos (O, O-diethyl O-3,5,6-trichloropyridin-2-yl phosphorothioate) and carbaryl (1-naphthyl methylcarbamate) are often applied concurrently as insecticides in food production. The aim of this study was to research their migration behavior in a real environment. We researched the leaching of both pesticides by setting up field lysimeters on a farm with the typical soil used in fruit production today.

From biowaste to magnet-responsive materials for water remediation from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

Composted urban biowaste-derived substances (BBS-GC) are used as carbon sources for the preparation of carbon-coated magnet-sensitive nanoparticles obtained via co-precipitation method and the subsequent thermal treatment at 550 °C under nitrogen atmosphere. A multitechnique approach has been applied to investigate the morphology, magnetic properties, phase composition, thermal stability of the obtained magnet-sensitive materials. In particular, pyrolysis-induced modifications affecting the BBS-GC/carbon shell were highlighted.

Characterization of soil organic matter by FT-IR spectroscopy and its relationship with chlorpyrifos sorption.

Sorption of non-ionic organic compounds to soil is usually expressed as the carbon-normalized partition coefficient (K) assuming that the main factor that influences the amount sorbed is the organic carbon content (OC) of the soil. However, K can vary across a range of soils. The influence of certain soil characteristics on the chlorpyrifos K values variation for 12 representative soils of the Northpatagonian Argentinian region with different physicochemical properties was investigated for this study.