Editorial pubs.acs.org/ac
Water Analysis for Emerging Chemical Contaminants
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merging contaminants, often also phrased “contaminants of emerging concern” (CECs), comprise a multitude of different compounds that share a lack of knowledge with regard to their risk to human health and/or the environment. Typically, they are not yet regulated, except by general precautionary threshold values, if such an approach is adopted at all (i.e., in the EU rather than the U.S.). Although other areas also deserve increased research efforts in water analysis, here, we focus on trends in the analysis of emerging organic chemical contaminants. Thus, we excluded trends in areas such as microorganism and inorganic analyses and sensors. In the journal Analytical Chemistry, CECs in water are the focus of a biannual review authored for many years by Susan Richardson and coauthors. The most recent of these reviews appeared in the 2016 Reviews Special Issue and provides an excellent overview of the topic. The presence of CECs is not restricted to a specific environmental medium. However, recent focus on water explains the shift toward more polar organic compounds that neither partition substantially into the atmosphere nor sorb well on environmental solids, such as soil and sediments. In fact, the need to analyze for CECs in water was a strong driver for recent developments in analytical instrumentation. This is particularly evident in the areas of anthropogenic nanomaterials and microplastics, which must be distinguished from potential interferences that often occur at much higher (natural background) concentrations. At the same time, the demands on analyses are very high with information needed not only on the identity and quantity of nanomaterials and microplastics but also on particle size (distribution) and even shape. For organic compounds, there is a clear trend toward the increased use of high-resolution mass spectrometry, which benefits from instrumental developments in -omics. However, workflows for suspect screening and nontarget analysis in water have only emerged over the past few years. Finally, there are always new chemicals in new and old chemical classes on which to focus further analytical developments and applications. These papers, published between 2013 and 2015, selected for this Virtual Issue were taken from the journals of Analytical Chemistry, Environmental Science & Technology, and Environmental Science & Technology Letters. We highlight papers that focus on the artificial sweeteners, disinfection byproducts, new per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, carbon nanomaterials, pharmaceuticals, chemicals in fracking fluids, and naphthenic acids associated with oil sands. The selected papers also highlight the close relationship between analytical developments and our growing understanding of the occurrence, fate, and potential effects of CECs in aquatic environments.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Notes
Views expressed in this editorial are those of the author and not necessarily the views of the ACS.
Torsten C. Schmidt Instrumental Analytical Chemistry and Center for Water and Environmental Research, University of Duisburg-Essen, 45141 Essen, Germany
Jennifer Field Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331, United States © XXXX American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5b04922 Anal. Chem. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
