Pathways and Analytical Tools in Degradation Studies of Organic Pollutants

All chemical compounds may undergo a variety of processes resulting from chemical, biological, or photochemical reactions. Depending on the environmental compartment in which organic compounds are present (e.g., soil, benthic sediments, surfacewaters, and groundwaters), they can undergo slow changes resulting from different chemical, physical, biological, or photochemical processes. In this study, different degradation pathways for selected persistent organic pollutants under varying conditions are presented. The problem of intermediate products that form during the degradation of substances, the toxicity of substances that are the products of organic compounds degradation, and the ways to identify such substances have been discussed.