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Articles

Joint effect of triclosan and copper nanoparticles on wastewater biological nutrient removal

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Pages 2447-2456 | Received 04 May 2017, Accepted 11 Jul 2017, Published online: 26 Jul 2017
 

ABSTRACT

Triclosan (TCS) is widely used in household and personal care products, and its release into wastewater might have impact on wastewater biological treatment for its antibacterial property. Besides, emerging pollutant such as copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) will also release from nanoparticle-containing products, showing a joint effect with TCS on biological nutrient removal. The TCS of 1 and 10 mg/L inhibited the nitrosification and nitrification stage, and the first step of denitrification was suppressed as well, causing a decline in final TN removal efficiency. Additionally, the phosphorus uptake was inhibited seriously, leading to a remarkable decrease in phosphorus removal efficiency. When they were co-existed, the TCS concentration decreased due to the absorption by CuNPs, and the released Cu2+ from CuNPs increased. Further investigation revealed that when 5 mg/L CuNPs and 1 mg/L TCS were immediately added to the activated sludge, the final joint toxicity was similar to the individual effect of 1 mg/L TCS, while 10 mg/L CuNPs contributed to the final stronger toxicity. When TCS was sufficiently reacted with CuNPs in wastewater, their final toxicity to activated sludge was enhanced because the extent of toxicity relief caused by decrease in TCS concentration was less than the degree of deteriorating effect due to the promotion of Cu2+ release from CuNPs.

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Gang Xue for his experimental designing, Yuying Cheng, Di Meng and Mingji Jiang for their data collection, and Xiang Li for data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51508081], Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [grant numbers BK20160431 and BK20150434].

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