Jacob de Boer
VU University, The Netherlands
Title: Comprehensive multi-dimensional liquid chromatography for effect-directed analysis in effluents and surface water
Biography
Biography: Jacob de Boer
Abstract
The environmentt 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.