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![[DPEPhosbcpCu]PF6: A General and Broadly Applicable Copper-Based Photoredox Catalyst](/_next/image?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcloudfront.jove.com%2FCDNSource%2Fteasers%2F59739.jpg&w=3840&q=50)
[DPEPhosbcpCu]PF6: A General and Broadly Applicable Copper-Based Photoredox Catalyst
Published on: May 21, 2019
Chlorophyll catalyse the photo-transformation of carcinogenic benzo[a]pyrene in water
Lijuan Luo1, Xueying Lai1, Baowei Chen1
1MOE Key Laboratory of Aquatic Product Safety, South China Sea Bio-Resource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, School of Life Sciences/School of Marine Science, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
Abstract:
Algal blooms cause great damage to water quality and aquaculture. However, this study showed that dead algal cells and chlorophyll could accelerate the photo-transformation of benzo[a]pyrene (BaP), a ubiquitous and persistent pollutant with potently mutagenic and carcinogenic toxicities, under visible light irradiation. Chlorophyll was found to be the major active substance in dead algal cells, and generated a high level of singlet oxygen to catalyse the photo-transformation of BaP. According to various BaP metabolites formed, the degradation mechanism was proposed as that chlorophyll in dead algal cells photo-oxidized BaP to quinones via photocatalytic generation of singlet oxygen. The results provided a good insight into the role of chlorophyll in the photo-transformation of organic contaminants and could be a possible remediation strategy of organic pollutants in natural environment.
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