Magnetic hypercrosslinked polymer microspheres for the detection, spatial distribution, source identification and potential risks assessment of five polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in city river of plateau lake, Southwest China

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have long been globally distributed, and almost worldwide people are exposed to varying degrees of PAHs. Aqueous medium is an important transmission route of PAHs, but the detection of PAHs in aqueous environment has been a challenge. Herein, a magnetic hypercrosslinked polymer microsphere (Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP) was developed for the effective detection of PAHs. Under the effect of multiple factors (hydrophilicity, intermolecular force and molecular volume), Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP shows excellent performance on the enrichment of five PAHs in aqueous environment. Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP was used to capture PAHs in city river of plateau lake. In-depth data analysis showed that factory activities and traffic emissions are the main pollution sources of PAHs. Ecological, carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks are almost within the safe range. The carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of PAHs in children are higher than adults, which needs to be taken seriously. This method breaks the dilemma that it is difficult to enrich weakly hydrophilic pollutants in aqueous media, and complements important pathways for tracing sources of pollutants and assessing associated risks. It brings methodological enlightenment into the development of environmental pollution and human health risk assessment methodology. In this study, a magnetic hyper-cross-linked polymer microsphere (Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP) was developed. Under the effect of multiple factors such as hydrophilicity, intermolecular force and molecular volume, Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP showed excellent effect on the enrichment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in aqueous environment. Fe3O4@SiO2-PS@HCP was used to capture PAHs in city river of plateau lake. The pollution sources of PAHs were traced, and the ecological risk, carcinogenic risk and non-carcinogenic risk of PAHs in city river of plateau lake were evaluated. This method complements important pathways for accurately tracing sources of environmental pollutants and assessing associated risks to PAHs.