Evaluation of the acute toxicity of hydrophobic dyes using passive dosing

• Grant number: 19/24976-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: August 01, 2020
• End date: July 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Toxicology
• Principal Investigator: Gisela de Aragão Umbuzeiro
• Grantee: Matheus Henrique de Oliveira
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Tecnologia (FT). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Limeira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Dyes have been largely used by the industrial sector, especially in the textile industry. The dyes that are not attached to the fibers can be discharged in water bodies via effluent, which may impact the water quality due to their toxic properties. Disperse dyes are among the most used dyes in the textile sector, and because of their hydrophobic properties, they are poorly soluble in water. Passive dosing has emerged recently as a route of exposure employed in toxicity tests that allows working with poorly soluble compounds by using a polymer, which can maintain more constant and stable concentrations of the compound in the medium test via partitioning equilibrium. Thus, the present project aims to test the acute toxicity of hydrophobic dyes via passive dosing with aquatic organisms. Such dyes will be chosen from Max Weaver Dye Library (MWDL) repository, a database with 98,000 dyes samples at North Carolina State University. They will be selected based on their octanol/water partition coeficient (log Kow) and tested only after their purity and chemical structure are confirmed. It is expected to better understand the toxicity of the dyes chosen using a methodology that compensates for losses that commonly occur over toxicity assays with hydrophobic compounds, as well as contribute with more data on dyes toxicity. (AU)