Emerging Analytical Methods for Detection and Separation of Environmental Pollutants and Food Contaminants

Dear Colleagues,

Organic pollutants consist a group of chemical substances occuring in food and the environment as a result of human activities such as industrial processes, plant protection, and livestock, among others. Organic pollutants include a wide range of organic compounds such as chlorinated pesticides, organophosphates perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), bisphenols, sulfonamides, tetracyclines, and many more; said compounds have different physicochemical properties and different (eco)toxicological properties, often raising significant concern for scientists and regulators due to their potential toxicity and bio-accumulation through the food chain. The determination of these compounds in food and environmental samples is an indispensable tool for the collection of data that are used for their risk assessment and risk management in order to protect the environment and human health.

The reliable determination of known organic pollutants at low concentrations in the complex matrices of food and environmental samples, and even more so the identification of unknown organic pollutants and their possible transformation products, provide continual challenges in the field of analytical chemistry. In recent years, hyphenated techniques, such as chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry, are the key to monitoring organic contaminants in the environment and food, because of their high sensitivity (low-resolution mass spectrometry) and their high reliability in identification of analytes (high-resolution mass spectrometry).

This Special Issue of Separations focuses on analytical methodologies for the determination of organic pollutants in environmental and food samples using hyphenated techniques. Colleagues are invited to submit original papers including methodologies for monitoring organic pollutants as well as screening approaches for emerging contaminants. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following; (1) analytical methodologies for the determination of organic pollutants using hyphenated techniques; (2) screeening methodologies for organic pollutants in environmental and food samples; (3) target, suspect, and non-target approaches involving hyphenated high-resolution techniques for environmental monitoring and/or food safety assessment; and (4) validation studies with current guidelines (such as Eurachem, EURL-POPs) for organic pollutants (and particularly for regulated substances).

Dr. Marios G. Kostakis
Dr. Niki Maragou
Dr. Natasa Kalogiouri
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Separations is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• persisent organic pollutants
• emerging contaminants
• high-resolution mass spectrometry
• low-resolution mass spectrometry
• tandem mass spectrometry
• food analysis
• environmental analysis
• liquid chromatography
• gas chromatography
• sample preparation techniques