Development of innovative multi-dimensional liquid chromatography methods for the analysis of organic micropollutants and their degradation products in environmental water

This project aims at developing innovative multi-dimensional liquid chromatography (MD-LC) methods for the simultaneous analysis of compounds of interest in a typical wastewater matrix (inorganic salts, aromatic compounds, organic micropollutants (OMPs) and their transformation products (TPs)). Since these compounds display a variety of physicochemical properties (polarity, functional groups and charge), multiple separation mechanisms are required for their analysis. This project will therefore investigate the feasibility of combining up to four separation mechanisms in a single injection MD-LC method to ensure all relevant compounds can be analyzed. For the characterization of the compounds, a combination of detectors will be used. A non-destructive diode-array detector will be coupled in series with either a conductivity detector for the detection/quantification of inorganic ions or mass spectrometry for the identification/quantification of organic compounds. Once all relevant compounds have been identified, a taxonomically diverse set of aquatic organisms (including zebrafish and Medaka fish) will be used to assess the toxicity/ecotoxicity features of the identified compounds.