As one of persistent organic pollutants, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) has been widely detected in various environmental media and shows multiple toxic effects on human and animals. One of its main sources is from the biotransformation of PFOS precursor (PrePFOS). PFOS and PrePFOS have been found in various environmental media like soil, air and water. Understanding the biodegradation pathway and PFOS yield of PrePFOS are useful to predict the environmental fata of PFOS due to that its PFOS yield from abiotic degradation could be ignored. In this study, the occurrence and biodegradation of PrePFOS in different environmental media were summarized. Of all the PrePFOS, N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoethanol (EtFOSE) were mostly explored. Its biodegradation pathway and PFOS yield have been studied in soil, activated sludge, and sediment, which have found that its biodegradation mechanism is closely related with the physicochemical properties and microbial community structure of the medium. The decarboxylation of N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid (EtFOSAA) to N-ethyl perfluorooctane sulfonamide (EtFOSA) is the main rate-limiting step for the conversion of EtFOSE to PFOS. The latest research on aerobic biodegradation of EtFOSE in soil first proposed that decarboxylation of perfluorooctane sulfonamidoacetic acid (FOSAA) to perfluorooctane sulfonamide (FOSA) might be another rate-limiting step in the conversion of EtFOSE to PFOS. EtFOSE-Based Phosphate Diester (DiSAmPAP) had been widely used in various commercial products before 2003, and it had not been detected in sediment until 2012 due to its high Kow value and the lack of detection technology. Its half-life was predicted to be > 380d and it might be biodegradated into EtFOSE firstly and finally transformed into PFOS. And the existing problems and future research direction were discussed too.
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