With the advent of global regulations for safer detergent and an emphasis on a shift toward more environmentally friendly formulations, the environmental profile of surfactant chemistries have moved to the forefront of product formulation and design. The two cornerstones of surfactant environmental profiles are the ability to biodegrade in the natural environment and the ecological hazard profile. The objectives of this article are to describe biodegradation and aquatic toxicity data for a series of branched oxo‐alcohol ethoxylate (AEO) surfactants; to apply the target lipid model (TLM) for deriving model‐based threshold hazard concentrations (HC5) of AEO; and, finally, to accurately determine aquatic classifications for AEO surfactants for use in regulatory classification frameworks. Biodegradation results indicate a high level of biodegradability of branched AEO, with C8–C13‐rich oxo‐alcohols with 1–20 mol of ethoxylate meeting the readily biodegradable criteria. Results from acute and chronic toxicity tests indicated comparable or lesser aquatic toxicity versus linear AEO structures previously reported in the literature. The TLM model, applied a priori, resulted in good agreement with acute toxicity data (RMSE = 0.49) and is comparable to the root mean square errors (RMSE) previously determined for other narcotic chemicals (RMSE = 0.46–0.57). Model errors for invertebrates and fish were smaller than those for algae, with the TLM systematically overpredicting acute and chronic classification of two of seven branched AEO. Furthermore, TLM‐predicted HC5 values were determined to be sufficiently conservative, with 100% of observed chronic data (N = 79) falling above the HC5 threshold values, providing a useful tool for the risk assessment of AEO.

中文翻译：

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支链醇乙氧基化物的生物降解和生态毒性：目标脂质模型的应用及其对环境分类的启示

随着全球关于更安全洗涤剂的法规的出台以及对向更环保配方的重视，表面活性剂化学物质的环境特征已移至产品配方和设计的最前沿。表面活性剂环境概况的两个基石是在自然环境中生物降解的能力和生态危害概况。本文的目的是描述一系列支链氧代醇乙氧基化物（AEO）表面活性剂的生物降解和水生毒性数据。将目标脂质模型（TLM）应用于得出基于模型的AEO阈危险浓度（HC5）; 最后，准确确定用于监管分类框架的AEO表面活性剂的水生分类。生物降解结果表明，支链AEO具有很高的生物降解性，富含C8–C13的含1〜20 mol乙氧基化物的含氧醇符合易于生物降解的标准。急性和慢性毒性试验的结果表明，水生毒性相当或更小相对于先前文献中报道的线性AEO结构。先验应用的TLM模型与急性毒性数据（RMSE = 0.49）很好地吻合，并且可以与之前为其他麻醉药品确定的均方根误差（RMSE）（RMSE = 0.46-0.57）相比。无脊椎动物和鱼类的模型误差小于藻类的误差，而TLM系统地预测了七个分支AEO中的两个的急，慢性分类。此外，TLM预测的HC5值被确定为足够保守，所观察到的慢性数据（N = 79）100％高于HC5阈值，为AEO风险评估提供了有用的工具。