Degradation of Reactive Black 5 by electrochemical oxidation.

Degradation of commercial grade Reactive Black 5 (RB5) azo dye by chemical and electrochemical treatment was examined using a dimensionally stable anode and stainless steel cathodes as electrode materials, with NaCl as supporting electrolyte. The electrochemical treatment was compared to the chemical treatment with hypochlorite generated by electrolysis. The compounds present in the commercial grade RB5 azo dye and the products of its electrochemical degradation were separated using ion-pairing high performance liquid chromatography on reversed phase. The separated species were detected by diode array detector and electrospray ionization mass spectrometry. A suitable ion-pairing reversed phase HPLC-MS method with electrospray ionization for the separation and identification of the components was developed. The accurate mass of the parent and fragment ions were used in the determination of the empirical formulas of the components using the first-order mass spectra. Structural formulas of degradation products were proposed using these information and principles of organic chemistry and electrochemistry.

Toxicity assessment and comparison between two types of iron oxide nanoparticles in Mytilus galloprovincialis.

Nanoparticles (NPs), due to their increased application and production, are being released into the environment with unpredictable impact on the physiology of marine organisms, as well as on entire ecosystems and upcoming effects on human health. The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the oxidative responses of the mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis after exposure to iron oxide NPs and to iron oxide NPs incorporated into zeolite for 1, 3 and 7 days. Our results showed that both effectors induced changes on animal physiology by causing oxidative stress in hemocytes of exposed mussels compared to control animals. This was shown by the significant increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, protein carbonylation, lipid peroxidation, ubiquitin conjugates and DNA damage. In addition an increase in prooxidant levels as measured by the prooxidant-antioxidant balance (PAB) assay was observed in exposed mussels' hemolymph. The results show that ROS, DNA damage, protein and lipid oxidation, ubiquitin conjugates and PAB could constitute, after further investigation, reliable biomarkers for the evaluation of pollution or other environmental stressors. In addition, more studies are needed in order to ensure the safety of these NPs on various biomedical applications, since it is critical to design NPs that they meet the demands of application without causing cellular toxicity.