Oxidation of danofloxacin by free chlorine-kinetic study, structural identification of by-products by LC-MS/MS and potential toxicity of by-products using in silico test.

In this study, we aimed to investigate the kinetics and the mechanism of reaction of the fluoroquinolone antibacterial danofloxacin (DANO) by free available chlorine (FAC) during water chlorination process. Kinetic study was thus performed at pH 7.2, 20 °C in the presence of an excess of total chlorine. Under these experimental conditions, a second-order reaction rate constant (first-order relative to DANO concentration and first-order relative to FAC concentration) was evaluated to k~1446 M-1 s-1. Five degradation products were identified at different reaction times. Their structures were investigated by using fragmentations obtained at different CID collision energies in MS/MS experiments. Moreover, the toxicity of the proposed structures was predicted by using T.E.S.T. PROGRAM: The results indicated that all by-products may have a developmental toxicity. The oral rat LD50 concentration was predicted to be lower than that of DANO. Furthermore, two degradation compounds presented a concentration level for fathead minnow LC50 (96 h) lower than that of DANO and presented toxicity for the marine animals.