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  • Review Article
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High-molecular-weight by-products of chlorine disinfection

Nature Water volume 1, pages 336–347 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Although drinking water chlorination has reduced the incidence of waterborne disease, the reactions of chlorine with organic matter can lead to the formation of >700 halogenated disinfection by-products (DBPs). Epidemiological studies have linked the consumption of chlorinated drinking water with bladder cancer. With studies indicating that the one- and two-carbon-atom DBPs of current interest account for only ~16% of disinfected water cytotoxicity, there is a need to identify toxicity drivers within the poorly characterized higher-molecular-weight (more than two carbon atoms) DBP fraction. In this Review, we outline the current knowledge regarding this fraction and discuss novel analytical approaches to characterizing the much wider variety of structures that it contains. We detail the products formed from the reactions of chlorine with different categories of precursor, including the characteristics of the elemental formulae of products identified by high-resolution mass spectrometry, the halogenated aromatic DBPs formed from precursors in pristine waters and the products derived from biopolymer-bound monomers in algal- or wastewater-impacted waters. Finally, we discuss the key challenges for research into this important, but until recently, mostly overlooked by-product fraction.

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Fig. 1: Sources of biopolymers in water supplies.
Fig. 2: Conversion of biomolecular precursors to high-molecular-weight DBP intermediates and then to C1 and C2 DBPs.
Fig. 3: Formation of non-halogenated and halogenated aromatic DBPs during the chlorination of terrigenous DOM.
Fig. 4: By-products formed during the chlorination of monomers bound within biopolymers.
Fig. 5: Novel high-molecular-weight DBPs measured in disinfected waters.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by funding from the National Science Foundation (CBET 1935904 to W.A.M. and CBET 2042016 and 1705206 to S.D.R.) and the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong (grant nos. 16212518 and 16210221 to X.Z.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    William A. Mitch

  2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA

    Susan D. Richardson

  3. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong SAR, China

    Xiangru Zhang

  4. University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, Solomons, MD, USA

    Michael Gonsior

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Mitch, W.A., Richardson, S.D., Zhang, X. et al. High-molecular-weight by-products of chlorine disinfection. Nat Water 1, 336–347 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00064-x

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