摘要：

The present paper aims to review the fate of alkylphenol and alkylphenol ethoxylates(APEOs) in the environment.As is known,APEOs are widely used as nonionic surfactants,and are widely found in sewage treatment plants(STP) or in other environmental pollution control practices.However,the metabolites of APEOs such as nonylphenol(NP) and octylphenol(OP),together with the short chain APEOs such as NPEO1,NPEO2 and NPEO3,are more toxic alkylphenols,and the break-up of their metabolites proves rather slow and even persistent.High Kow values of the said small metabolites determine that they will be partitioned effectively into sediments or biophase when discharged from the STP.Therefore the high concentration in water phase,combined with their high partition coefficients, will provide a significant reservoir in various environmental compartments.In the air,for example,levels of NP range from 2.2 ng·m~(-3) to 70 ng·m~(-3) with the seasonal trends was observed.Concentrations of APEOs metabolites in treated wastewater effluents in the Germany range from 0.025 μg·L~(-1) to 0.77 μg·L~(-1),while in Spain up to 343 μg·L~(-1).The concentrations prove to range from 0.006 7 μg·L~(-1) to 644 μg·L~(-1) in surface waters,and relatively high concentrations were even found in drinking water.Levels in sediments reflect the high partition coefficients with concentrations reported ranging from 0.1 μg·kg~(-1) to 13,700 μg·kg~(-1).In soil,the concentrations of APEOs metabolites can even reach 2.72 μg·g~(-1) due to the large amount of discharge of sludge from STPs.Aquatic organisms and hydrophytes were also found containing up to 38 μg·g~(-1) NP and 80 μg·g~(-1) NPEO1,though APEOs degrade faster in the water column than in the sediment.Aerobic conditions facilitate further biotransformation of APEOs metabolites than anaerobic conditions.So far as we know,it is possible to accelerate the degradation of APEOs metabolites by increasing the temperature.

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