Exploring the Behaviour of Emerging Contaminants in the Water Cycle using the Capabilities of High Resolution Mass Spectrometry
Juliane Hollender,
Marc Bourgin,
Kathrin B. Fenner,
Philipp Longrée,
Christa S. Mcardell,
Christoph Moschet,
Matthias Ruff,
Emma L. Schymanski,
Heinz P. Singer
Affiliations
Juliane Hollender
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics ETH Zürich, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland. [email protected]
Marc Bourgin
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Kathrin B. Fenner
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Philipp Longrée
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Christa S. Mcardell
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland; Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics ETH Zürich, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland
Christoph Moschet
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Matthias Ruff
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Emma L. Schymanski
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Heinz P. Singer
Eawag, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology Überlandstrasse 133 CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
To characterize a broad range of organic contaminants and their transformation products (TPs) as well as their loads, input pathways and fate in the water cycle, the Department of Environmental Chemistry (Uchem) at Eawag applies and develops high-performance liquid chromatography (LC) methods combined with high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry (HRMS/MS). In this article, the background and state-of-the-art of LC-HRMS/MS for detection of i) known targets, ii) suspected compounds like TPs, and iii) unknown emerging compounds are introduced briefly. Examples for each approach are taken from recent research projects conducted within the department. These include the detection of trace organic contaminants and their TPs in wastewater, pesticides and their TPs in surface water, identification of new TPs in laboratory degradation studies and ozonation experiments and finally the screening for unknown compounds in the catchment of the river Rhine.
