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

A special issue of Separations (ISSN 2297-8739). This special issue belongs to the section "Chromatographic Separations".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 695

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, Department of Chemistry, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Interests: analytical chemistry; seperation techniques; mass spectrometry; method development; method validation

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Guest Editor
Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Food Sciences, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
Interests: analytical chemistry; chromatography; mass spectrometry; food safety; environmental analysis; regulatory legislation; quality control
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Guest Editor
Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry, School of Chemistry, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece
Interests: analytical chemistry; microextraction sample preparation techniques; high-pressure liquid chromatography; gas chromatography; high-resolution mass spectrometry; 2D chromatographic systems; metabolomics; chemometrics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

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

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Keywords

  • 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

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

15 pages, 2581 KiB  
Article
Multi-Residue Analysis of Thyreostats in Animal Muscle Tissues by Hydrophilic Interaction Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry: A Thorough Chromatographic Study
by Anastasia S. Kritikou, Marilena E. Dasenaki, Niki C. Maragou, Marios G. Kostakis and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis
Separations 2024, 11(9), 269; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations11090269 - 14 Sep 2024
Viewed by 398
Abstract
Τhyreostats (TSs) are veterinary drugs used in livestock farming for fattening. Their administration is banned in the European Union since 1981, and their monitoring for food quality and safety control requires sensitive and confirmatory methods. The present study describes the development and validation [...] Read more.
Τhyreostats (TSs) are veterinary drugs used in livestock farming for fattening. Their administration is banned in the European Union since 1981, and their monitoring for food quality and safety control requires sensitive and confirmatory methods. The present study describes the development and validation of a hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) method for the simultaneous determination of 2-thiouracil (TU), 6-methyl-2-thiouracil (MTU), 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU), 6-phenyl-2-thiouracil (PhTU), tapazole (TAP), and 2-mercaptobenzimidazole (MBI) in bovine muscle tissues. Investigation of the retention mechanism of the six analytes on the selected amide-based stationary phase showed that hydrophilic partition was the dominant interaction. The sample preparation included extraction with ACN/H2O (80/20), followed by dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE) with C18 sorbent and hexane partitioning. The method was validated according to European guidelines using internal standards, including isotopically labelled ones. The method’s LODs ranged between 2.8 ng g−1 (6-phenyl-2-thiouracil) and 4.1 ng g−1 (2-thiouracil). Application of the proposed method to 48 bovine tissue samples showed non-detectable results. Full article
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