Filling the knowledge gap: A suspect screening study for 1310 potentially persistent and mobile chemicals with SFC- and HILIC-HRMS in two German river systems. (1st October 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Neuwald, Isabelle; Muschket, Matthias; Zahn, Daniel; Berger, Urs; Seiwert, Bettina; Meier, Till; Kuckelkorn, Jochen; Strobel, Claudia; Knepper, Thomas P.; Reemtsma, Thorsten
• Is Part Of: Water research. Volume 204(2021)
• Publication Date: 2021-10-01
• Subjects: PMT-substances -- Wastewater -- Groundwater -- Drinking water -- Water cycle -- LC-MS; Water -- Pollution -- Research -- Periodicals; 363.7394
• DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2021.117645
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0043-1354

Abstract

Highlights: A list of 1310 suspects of PM substances was compiled for suspect screening. SFC- and HILIC-HRMS show high degree of complementarity for suspect screening. 64 identified PM candidates of low molecular weight and mostly ionic in surface water. Toxicological data for PM candidates is only sparsely available. Organic ions mainly used in ionic liquids found as new class of water contaminant. Abstract: Persistent and mobile chemicals (PM chemicals) were searched for in surface waters by hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) and supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), both coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS). A suspect screening was performed using a newly compiled list of 1310 potential PM chemicals to the data of 11 surface water samples from two river systems. In total, 64 compounds were identified by this approach. The overlap between HILIC- and SFC-HRMS was limited (31 compounds), confirming the complementarity of the two methods used. The identified PM candidates are characterized by a high polarity (median log D -0.4 at pH 7.5), a low molecular weight (median 187 g/mol), are mostly ionic (54 compounds) and contain a large number of heteroatoms (one per four carbons on average). Among the most frequently detected novel or yet scarcely investigated water contaminants were cyanoguanidine (11/11 samples), adamantan-1-amine (10/11), trifluoromethanesulfonate (9/11), 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropanesulfonate (10/11), and the inorganic anions hexafluorophosphate (11/11) and tetrafluoroborate (10/11). 31% of the identified suspects are mainly used in ionic liquids, a chemically diverse group of industrial chemicals with numerous applications that is so far rarely studied for their occurrence in the environment. Prioritization of the findings of PM candidates is hampered by the apparent lack of toxicity data. Hence, precautionary principles and minimization approaches should be applied for the risk assessment and risk management of these substances. The large share of novel water contaminants among these findings of the suspect screening indicates that the universe of PM chemicals present in the environment has so far only scarcely been explored. Dedicated analytical methods and screening lists appear essential to close the analytical gap for PM compounds. Graphical abstract: Image, graphical abstract