Pharmaceutica Analytica Acta

Comprehensive multi-dimensional liquid chromatography for effect-directed analysis in effluents and surface water

International Conference and Exhibition on Advances in HPLC & Chromatography Techniques

March 14-15, 2016 London, UK

Jacob de Boer, X Ouyang, P E G Leonards, J Legradi, M Schriks, R van der Oost, J Legler and M H Lamoree

VU University, The Netherlands
KWR Water Cycle Research Institute, The Netherlands
Waternet, The Netherlands

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Pharm Anal Acta

Abstract:

The environment is contaminated with a large number of compounds that may impact organisms in, e.g., surface waters. Due to complexity of the contaminant mixtures present, there is a need for powerful separation techniques with high peak capacities. The European project EDA-EMERGE aims to develop a comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LCxLC) system linked to a 96-384 wells fraction collector, a UV detector and a high resolution time-of-flight mass spectrometer (HRToF-MS) to identify emerging toxicants in Effect-Directed Analysis (EDA). The LCxLC system was optimized using a C18 column (1.8 μm, 150x2.1 mm) as the first dimension while the selectivity of the second dimension was studied using a range of stationary phases: Phenyl- Hexyl (Coroshell, 2.7 μm, 50x4.6 mm), Pentafluorophenyl (Kinetex, 2.6 μm, 50x4.6 mm), and HILIC (1.8 μm, 50x3.5 mm). Standard compound mixtures, for example, polycyclic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and triazine, organophosphates and carbamate pesticides were used for testing. The stability of the retention times, peak widths, separation efficiency, etc. were studied. Secondly, the hyphenation of LCxLC with high resolution ToF-MS was optimized. Finally, the optimized LCxLC-UV-HRToF-MS system was used for the analysis of extracts of waste, surface, and drinking water. Extracts were prepared by either passive sampling (silicone rubber sheets) or large volume solid phase extraction (30-60 L). The C18xPFP column combination appeared to be the most suitable one. The significant enhancement of the peak capacity by using LCxLC facilitates the rapid identification of toxic compounds, leading to a comprehensive chemical characterization of environmental water samples, including toxicological evaluation of the identified compounds.

Biography :

Jacob de Boer is Director of the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM) at the VU University in Amsterdam. He is Professor in Environmental Chemistry and Toxicology. He is Editor-in-Chief of Chemosphere. Since 2013 he is National Expert for China. His research interests are in method development and analysis of persistent organic contaminants, flame retardants and micro-plastics in the environment, indoor air and human samples. He has coordinated various European research projects and a large number of research projects for international organizations. He has published over 180 peer reviewed articles.

Email: jacob.de.boer@vu.nl