| 1. |
- Kanai, M, et al.
(author)
-
- 2023
-
swepub:Mat__t
|
|
| 2. |
- Niemi, MEK, et al.
(author)
-
- 2021
-
swepub:Mat__t
|
|
| 3. |
- Wilkinson, John L., et al.
(author)
-
Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers
- 2022
-
In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. - : Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. - 0027-8424 .- 1091-6490. ; 119:8
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Melling, Daniel, et al.
(author)
-
Controlling the electro-mechanical performance of polypyrrole through 3- and 3,4-methyl substituted copolymers
- 2015
-
In: RSC Advances. - : Royal Society of Chemistry. - 2046-2069. ; 5:102, s. 84153-84163
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Conducting polymers such as polypyrrole are biocompatible materials used in bioelectronic applications and microactuators for mechanobiology and soft microrobotics. The materials are commonly electrochemically synthesised from an electrolyte solution comprising pyrrole monomers and a salt, which is incorporated as the counter ion. This electrosynthesis results in polypyrrole forming a three-dimensional network with extensive cross-linking in both the alpha and beta positions, which impacts the electro-mechanical performance. In this study we adopt a blocking strategy to restrict and control cross-linking and chain branching through beta substitution of the monomer to investigate the effect of crosslinking on the electroactive properties. Methyl groups where used as blocking groups to minimise the impact on the pyrrole ring system. Pyrrole, 3- and 3,4-methyl substituted pyrrole monomers were electro-polymerised both as homo-polymers and as a series of co-polymer films. The electroactive performance of the films was characterised by measuring their electrochemical responses and their reversible and non-reversible film thickness changes. This showed that altering the degree of crosslinking through this blocking strategy had a large impact on the reversible and irreversible volume change. These results elaborate the importance of the polymer structure in the actuator performance, an aspect that has hitherto received little attention.
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
