Degradation kinetics and pathways of three calcium channel blockers under UV irradiation

Calcium channel blockers (CCBs) are a group of pharmaceuticals widely prescribed to lower blood pressure and treat heart diseases. They have been frequently detected in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) effluents and downstream river waters, thus inducing a potential risk to aquatic ecosystems. However, little is known about the behavior and fate of CCBs under UV irradiation, which has been adopted as a primary disinfection method for WWTP effluents. This study investigated the degradation kinetics and pathways of three commonly-used CCBs, including amlodipine (AML), diltiazem (DIL), and verapamil (VER), under UV (254 nm) irradiation. The chemical structures of transformation byproducts (TBPs) were first identified to assess the potential ecological hazards. On that basis, a generic solid-phase extraction method, which simultaneously used four different cartridges, was adopted to extract and enrich the TBPs. Thereafter, the photo-degradation of target CCBs was performed under UV fluences typical for WWTP effluent disinfection. The degradation of all three CCBs conformed to the pseudo-first-order kinetics, with rate constants of 0.031, 0.044 and 0.011 min(-1) for AML, DIL and VER, respectively. By comparing the MS(2) fragments and the evolution (i.e., formation or decay) trends of identified TBPs, the degradation pathways were proposed. In the WWTP effluent, although the target CCBs could be degraded, several TBPs still contained the functional pharmacophores and reached peak concentrations under UV fluences of 40-100 mJ cm(-2).