Potential Residual Toxicity of the Ibuprofen Oxidative Degradation Products by HPLC–MS and Principal Component Analysis

The ecotoxicological detoxification assessment of a wastewater treatment is a challenging task and is currently complex and time-consuming. This work is a preliminary investigation of a novel and simplified tool for monitoring the potential residual ecotoxicity of liquid wastes after a Fenton process treatment. Here, three zirconia-based catalysts modified with copper or iron have been investigated for the abatement of a model pollutant (ibuprofen). The evaluation of the residual ecotoxicity of the liquid waste after the catalytic treatment has been carried out on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis coupled with principal component analysis. This approach provides a new method to assess the detoxification of the treatment by evaluating the degradation products that are formed during the process; the higher the number of degradation products and their corresponding relative abundance, the higher the associated ecotoxicity of the treated wastewater. Besides, residual aromaticity is a reliable parameter for the toxicity profile of the treated effluents. These results proved for the first time that this rapid analytical method is suitable for the preliminary evaluation of the residual potential ecotoxicity of liquid wastes.