Photochemical Degradation of the Antimicrobial Sulfamethoxazole upon Solar Light Excitation: Kinetics and Elucidation of Byproducts Using LC/ ESI+/MS2 Technique

International audienceThe fate of the antimicrobial compounds in the environment is of great interest since their presence in the aquatic systems has raised environmental problems. More and more chemicals of this class are treated as emerging contaminants. The degradation of these compounds may result in the formation of a wide array of metabolites which can be more toxic than the parent substrate. Therefore, precise elucidation of all possible transformation products as well as a thorough study of their physico-chemical and biological properties is of great importance. The present work deals with the study of the photochemical behavior of sulfamethoxazole from the kinetic aspect as well as the elucidation of the products arising from the solar irradiation of the antimicrobial sulfamethoxazole in the aqueous solutions. HPLC/MS and HPLC/MS/MS with accurate mass measurements were used for this purpose