Challenges and Trends in the Analysis of Compounds of Emerging Concern

A special issue of Separations (ISSN 2297-8739).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (9 February 2021) | Viewed by 10256

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Medicines, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Rua Professor Gama Pinto, 1600-049 Lisbon, Portugal
Interests: food; analytical chemistry; organic contaminants; sample pre-treatment; chromatography; mass spectrometry; health
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,                

Regarding environmental contamination, focus has been giving to the so-called compounds of emerging concern (CECs). However, the prioritization of the investigated compounds requires a careful assessment of their occurrence and environmental persistence, potential ecological and health effects, and the appropriate level at which they should measuring. It is also necessary to understand the processes that control the contaminating sources of CECs, as well as their transport, behaviour, and fate in the environment, which has increased the need to study their environmental occurrence down to trace levels, with appropriate precision and accuracy. Therefore, it is mandatory to develop methods to improve our ability to measure CECs and their degradation by-products in several matrixes—both environmental and biological.

The technological development associated with the continuous improvement in equipment and analytical resources is a fundamental tool for monitoring these target compounds, and the quality of the obtained data is also an important issue, which supports the legislation or regulations regarding the use and release of these compounds into the environment. Because of the complexity of the environmental and biological matrices, the quantification of CECs requires advanced sample preparation technologies coupled with advanced hyphenate instrumentation. In this group, chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry are the ones most often used to quantify CECs.

This Special Issue is focused on trends and novel approaches in the separation and quantification methods for CEC monitorization. The discussion of the main advantages and disadvantages of different methodologies and the presentation of the full-validated methods for the monitorization of target compounds will be well come.

Prof. Dr. Cristina Almeida
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Contaminants of emerging concern
  • Organic compounds
  • Monitorization
  • Chromatographic techniques
  • Sample preparation
  • Mass spectrometry

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 4600 KiB  
Article
Grafting of Acrylic Membrane Prepared from Fibers Waste for Dyes Removal: Methylene Blue and Congo Red
by Ahmed Labena, Ahmed E. Abdelhamid, Shimaa Husien, Tarek Youssef, Ehab Azab, Adil A. Gobouri and Gehan Safwat
Separations 2021, 8(4), 42; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations8040042 - 1 Apr 2021
Cited by 14 | Viewed by 2700
Abstract
Dyes are a type of pollutant that have been discharged into water streams by various industries and had harmful effects on the environment and human health. Therefore, present work was directed to recycle acrylic fibers waste to be used as an adsorbent to [...] Read more.
Dyes are a type of pollutant that have been discharged into water streams by various industries and had harmful effects on the environment and human health. Therefore, present work was directed to recycle acrylic fibers waste to be used as an adsorbent to exclude dyes such as methylene blue (MB) and Congo red (CR) from dyes-polluted wastewater. Acrylic fibers waste was converted into membrane followed by chemical grafting with p-phenylenediamine monomer to form functional modified membranes. Afterwards, some characterization analyses; Fourier transform-infrared, scanning electron microscope, swelling behavior, and porosity properties were performed for the acrylic fiber grafted membrane (AFGM). For obtaining the best conditions that permit the highest adsorption capacity of the AFGM, some preliminary experiments followed by general full factorial design experiments were displayed. Langmuir, Freundlich isotherms and kinetic studies evaluations were applied. Results revealed that, the adsorption capacities of the AFGM were 61% for Methylene blue and 86% for Congo red that stated the high affinity of the AFGM to the anionic dyes. The reusability of the AFGM membranes in different cycles for 3Rs processes “Removal, Recovery, and Re-use” indicated the efficiency of the AFGM to be used in wastewater treatment. Full article
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50 pages, 957 KiB  
Review
Overview of Sample Preparation and Chromatographic Methods to Analysis Pharmaceutical Active Compounds in Waters Matrices
by Cristina M. M. Almeida
Separations 2021, 8(2), 16; https://doi.org/10.3390/separations8020016 - 9 Feb 2021
Cited by 18 | Viewed by 7076
Abstract
In the environment, pharmaceutical residues are a field of particular interest due to the adverse effects to either human health or aquatic and soil environment. Because of the diversity of these compounds, at least 3000 substances were identified and categorized into 49 different [...] Read more.
In the environment, pharmaceutical residues are a field of particular interest due to the adverse effects to either human health or aquatic and soil environment. Because of the diversity of these compounds, at least 3000 substances were identified and categorized into 49 different therapeutic classes, and several actions are urgently required at multiple steps, the main ones: (i) occurrence studies of pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs) in the water cycle; (ii) the analysis of the potential impact of their introduction into the aquatic environment; (iii) the removal/degradation of the pharmaceutical compounds; and, (iv) the development of more sensible and selective analytical methods to their monitorization. This review aims to present the current state-of-the-art sample preparation methods and chromatographic analysis applied to the study of PhACs in water matrices by pinpointing their advantages and drawbacks. Because it is almost impossible to be comprehensive in all PhACs, instruments, extraction techniques, and applications, this overview focuses on works that were published in the last ten years, mainly those applicable to water matrices. Full article
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