Amino polyphosphonates – chemical features and practical uses, environmental durability and biodegradation

Growing concerns about the quality of the environment led to the introduction of complex system of safety assessment of synthetically manufactured and commonly applied chemicals. Sometimes, however, our knowledge of consequences that result from the usage of these substances, appears far later, than at the beginning of their application. Such situation is observed in the case of aminopolyphosphonates being an important subgroup of organophosphorus compounds. The increasing industrial and household applications, led to introduce thousand tons of polyphosphonates every year into the environment. These substances are difficult to determine in environmental samples because of lack of appropriate analytical procedures. On the other hand they are suspected to influence the ecological equilibrium in aquatic ecosystems. Thus, studies on their fate in the environment, especially on the routes of their degradation seem to be of interest to both industrial and environmental chemistry. Wherefore this review contains recent available data on the impact of aminophosphonates on environment, microbial degradation methods and evaluation of the possibility for using microorganisms to remove aminophosphonates from wastewater.