CHED 1120 |
| The fate of both prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals in the environment are largely unknown. Previous studies have shown that these compounds may be present in watershed concentrations high enough to have detrimental biological effects. Current waste water treatment methods are not designed to break down these small organic molecules. Since up to 90% of these compounds can be excreted unchanged by humans, the potential exists for a continuing source of environmental replenishment. It may be that photolytic breakdown is an important mechanism of degradation in the environmental fate of these compounds. In this study, 100 ng/mL solutions of 13 target compounds comprising 6 different drug classes were analyzed over a 72 hour period and normalized to unexposed solutions of the same composition for possible evidence of accelerated breakdown via photolysis. Instrumentation utilized a Waters UPLC coupled with a Quattro micro triple quadrupole mass spectrometer operated in ESI+ mode. |
|
Undergraduate Research Poster Session: Environmental Chemistry
2:00 PM-4:00 PM, Monday, April 7, 2008 Morial Convention Center -- Hall A, Poster
Division of Chemical Education |