Research Project
Detection and Quantification of EDC/PPCPs in Source Waters Containing Dissolved and Colloidal Organic Matter
Understanding the fate and transport behavior of EDC/PPCPs in watersheds requires the capability to detect and quantify accurately the presence of these compounds in complex aqueous matrices. The state-of-the-art involves solid phase extraction prior to liquid or gas chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry detection [i.e., SPE-LC(GC)-MSMS]. Since the target EDC/PPCPs are low to intermediate molar mass organic compounds, we expect that the prevalence in impacted waters of non-target, naturally-occurring dissolved and colloidal organics will not only affect the watershed fate and transport behavior of the target compounds, but it will also influence SPE-LC(GC)-MSMS analyses in ways that strongly affect the quality of resulting data. A systematic study is required to address and resolve these issues.
Funding Agency: Water Research Foundation
http://www.waterrf.org
Principle Investigator: Jon Chorover
Research update on the web - from ASA, CSSA and SSSA Annual Meeting (San Antonio, TX - Oct. 16-19, 2011: Dissolved Organic Matter Effect On Accurate Laboratory Detection of Organic Contaminants Through Interference and Complexation Interactions
Publications:
- Wickramasekara, S., Hernández-Ruiz, S., Abrell, L., Arnold, R. Chorover, J., Natural dissolved organic matter affects electrospray ionization during analysis of emerging contaminants by mass spectrometry. Anal. Chim. Acta, 2012, 717, 77-84.
- Hernandez-Ruiz, S.; Abrell, L.; Wickramasekara, S.; Chefetz, B.; Chorover, J., Quantifying PPCP interaction with dissolved organic matter in aqueous solution: Combined use of fluorescence quenching and tandem mass spectrometry. Water Research, 2012, 46, 943-954.
- Hernandez Ruiz, S., Wickramasekara, S., Abrell, L., Gao, X., Chefetz, B., Chorover, J., Complexation of trace organic contaminants with fractionated dissolved organic matter: Implications for mass spectrometric quantification. Chemosphere, 2013, published online.
