Spatial distribution of polycyclic musks in water environment of Songhua River, China

Polycyclic musks were measured in totally 16 surface water samples and 3 effluent samples of municipal STPs (sewage treatment plants) of Songhua River in order to observe the distribution of these compounds and the effect of STPs efflunts on environment. Two representative polycyclic musks galaxolide ^® (HHCB) and tonalide ^® (AHTN) were analysed to obtian the concentration ratios of polycyclic musks between dissolved aqueous phase and particle phase. Each sample was divided into suspended particle matter (SPM) phase and dissolved liquid (DL) phase by vacuum filtration with a 0.45 μm filter, determined using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) after pretreatment. Concentrations of HHCB and AHTN in DL phase were in the range of 40~273 ng/L and 16~84 ng/L, respectively, while the ranges in SPM phase were 6~51 ng/L for HHCB and 5~20 ng/L for AHTN. Concentrations in DL phase were about 1.9~10.3 and 1.9~6.7 times higher than those in SPM phase for HHCB and AHTN, respectively, indicating that polycyclic musks mainly existed in DL phase and did not reached saturation. HHCB and AHTN presented much higher concentrations (2322~2472 ng/L for HHCB and 420~505 ng/L for AHTN) in effluents, showing that STPs effluents were the main source of polycyclic musks. Results of this study provided the evidence of occurrence of polycyclic musks in aqueous environment of Songhua River, which offered a new sight to polycyclic musks researches in China.