Recent Advancements in the Detection of Organic Contaminants in Wastewater Using Advanced Mass Spectrometry

With the increase of industrialization and urbanization, pollution of clean water has become a critical issue in the contemporary world. Despite organic pollutants such as pharmaceuticals, pesticides, industrial chemicals, poly- and per-fluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) and hormones, contaminants originating from the industrial effluents, urban run-offs, agricultural run-offs and domestic sewage have become a greater threat to the aquatic eco-systems. The availability of some of these highly potent contaminants at low concentrations and the simultaneous analysis of multiple samples have been identified as the major concerns in current analytical methods in water pollution analysis. In this regard, modern mass spectrometric methods have emerged as suitable techniques for the analysis of smallest concentrations even at a level of nanograms or femtograms while allowing the detection of hundreds of analytes in a single analysis within a short duration of time. 

Recently, combinational mass spectrometric analysis has become the state of the art in several qualitative and quantitative analyses of organic pollutants in water. The sensitivity of the detection has been enhanced by coupling with various sample extraction methods, chromatographic techniques and different mass analyzers in mass spectrometry. Utilization of modern sample extraction methods coupled with mass analyzers has facilitated the accuracy of the detection of organic pollutants in water samples. Sample extraction methods involve sophisticated solid-phase extraction, solid-phase microextraction, and liquid-liquid extraction methods, whereas mass analyzers include time-of-flight, orbitrap, ion-trap and triple quadrupole, etc. The hallmark of these hyphenated techniques is the ability of allowing the screening of targeted analytes, non-targeted analytes and suspect analytes without the need of authentic standards. This chapter will focus on the recent advancement of mass spectrometry in qualitative and quantitative analysis of several organic contaminants in wastewater samples.

Keywords: Alkaloids, Edible plants, Mass spectrometry, Toxicology, Traditional remedy.