Use of Zea mays L. in phytoremediation of trichloroethylene.

Trichloroethylene (TCE) is a chlorinated aliphatic organic compound often detected as pollutant in soils and ground water. "Green technologies" based on phytoremediation were proven to be effective to reclaim organic pollutants (e.g. TCE) and heavy metals from different environmental matrices. In this work, we use Zea mays L. for the removal of high TCE concentrations from medium cultures. In particular, we investigated a sealed bioreactor where the growth medium was contaminated with an increasing amount of TCE, in the range 55-280 mg/L; the removal capability of the maize plants was assessed by means of GC-MS and LC-MS analyses. An accurate mass balance of the system revealed that the plants were able to remove and metabolise TCE with an efficiency up to 20 %, depending on the total amount of TCE delivered in the bioreactor. Morphometric data showed that the growth of Z. mays is not significantly affected by the presence of the pollutant up to a concentration of 280 mg/L, while plants show significant alterations at higher TCE concentrations until the growth is completely inhibited for [TCE] ≃ 2000 mg/L. Finally, the presence of several TCE metabolites, including dichloroacetic and trichloroacetic acids, was detected in the roots and in the aerial part of the plants, revealing that Z. mays follows the green liver metabolic model. These results encourage further studies for the employment of this plant species in phytoremediation processes of soils and waters contaminated by TCE and, potentially, by many other chlorinated solvents.

Determination of aniline and quinoline compounds in textiles.

A simple method for simultaneous determination of twenty-one analytes, belonging to two classes of compounds, aromatic amines and quinolines, is presented. Several of the analytes considered in this study frequently occur in textiles goods on the open market and have been related to allergic contact dermatitis and/or are proven or suspected carcinogens. The method includes an efficient clean-up step using graphitized carbon black (GCB) that simplifies and improves the robustness of the subsequent GC-MS analysis. Briefly, after solvent extraction of the textile sample, the extract is passed through a GCB SPE cartridge that selectively retain dyes and other interfering compounds present in the matrix, producing a clean extract, suitable for GC-MS analysis, is obtained. The method was evaluated by spiking blank textiles with the selected analytes. Method quantification limits (MQL) ranged from 5 to 720ng/g depending on the analyte. The linear range of the calibration curves ranged over two order magnitude with coefficients of determination (R2) higher than 0.99. Recoveries ranged from 70 to 92% with RSDs 1.7-14%. The effectiveness of the method was tested on a variety of textile materials samples from different origin. In a pilot explorative survey, 2,6-dichloro-4-nitroaniline was detected in all the analysed clothing samples in concentrations ranging from 1.0 to 576µg/g. 2,4-dinitroaniline was detected in four of the seven samples with a highest concentration of 305µg/g. Quinoline was detected in all samples in concentrations ranging from 0.06 to 6.2µg/g.