Identification and environmental fate of novel halogenated polycyclic aromatic compounds in Canada's Oil Sands Region

阿尔伯塔油砂（AOS）是世界上第三大原油储量，根据目前的技术，估计可开采1650亿桶石油。该地区含有天然沥青、沙子、粘土、超细矿物固体和水的混合物，富含有机化合物，其中最值得注意的是多环芳香族化合物（PAC）。由于其历史遗留问题，加拿大的联邦监测活动集中于多环芳烃及其烷基化类似物。然而，据了解，AOS地区在数百万年前曾被海水覆盖，其中含有高浓度的氯离子和溴离子。在油砂形成过程中，成岩作用和退化作用的压力和温度升高，以及与丰富的地壳元素Al和Fe形成的卤化物的催化活化，创造了有利于有机卤素形成的环境。我们假设卤化PAC在AOS地区的生物样品中是可检测的。 这里描述的研究计划的总体目标是开发新的分析技术，使用最先进的仪器，从AOS地区的环境样品中发掘新的卤化PAC（HPAC）。 这一点很重要，因为这些化合物以前在AOS地区没有被发现过，而且这些化合物可能比不含卤素原子的化合物对野生动物更有害。 含氯和溴的PAC及其烷基化衍生物将是这个学生主导的研究计划的重点。在生物样品中发现的新化合物将推动这项研究计划的第二个主要组成部分。具体来说，我们将研究如何敏感这些化合物是代谢使用鱼肝微粒体生物测定。市售标准品将用作底物，以了解这些化合物向极性更强的代谢物的代谢转化。除了了解它们代谢的速度，我的HQP团队还将鉴定孵育生物测定期间形成的代谢物。AOS地区野生动物中HPAC的鉴定和鱼类中形成的代谢物将导致未来对这些化合物的持久性，生物累积性和毒性的研究活动，我们的团队（和其他人）将探索。

The Alberta Oil Sands (AOS) is the world's third largest reserve of crude oil with an estimated 165 billion barrels of oil recoverable given current technologies. The region contains naturally occurring mixtures of crude bitumen, sand, clay, ultrafine mineral solids and water that are rich in a soup of organic compounds the most notable of which are the polycyclic aromatic compounds (PACs). Because of their historical legacy, federal monitoring activities in Canada have focused on the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their alkylated analogs. However, it is known that the AOS region was once covered by sea water millions of years ago, which would have contained high concentrations of chloride and bromide ions. During the oil sand formation, the elevated pressures and temperatures of diagenesis and catagenesis combined with the catalytic activation of halides formed with abundant crustal elements Al and Fe created an environment conducive to organohalogen formation. We hypothesize that halogenated PACs would be detectable in biological samples from the AOS region.  The overarching aim of the research program described here is to develop novel analytical techniques using state-of-the-art instrumentation to unearth new halogenated PAC (HPACs) in environmental samples from the AOS region.  This is important because these compounds have not been identified before in the AOS region and there is a potential that these compounds could be more harmful to wildlife than ones not containing halogen atoms.  Chlorine and bromine containing PACs and their alkylated derivatives will be the focus of this student-led research program. The new compounds identify in biological samples will drive the second major component of this research program. Specifically, we will examine how susceptible these compounds are to metabolism using a fish liver microsomal bioassay. Commercially available standards will be used as substrate to understand the metabolic conversion of these compounds to more polar metabolites. In addition to understanding how quickly they metabolize, my HQP team will identify the metabolites formed during the incubation bioassay. The identification of HPACs in wildlife from the AOS region and the metabolites formed in fish will lead to future research activities on the persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicities of these compounds that our group (and others) will explore.