Evaluation of sample preparation methods for the monitoring of eAOP degradation products

Firstly, please allow me to introduce my academic information. I have been admitted as being a PhD student to the program of Doctoral Training in Biomedical Sciences in Leuven in Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences as well as being a Marie-Curie Innovative Training Network (ITN) holder (H2020 MSCA-ETN INNOVEOX: https://innoveox.eu/). Besides, my PhD project is one part of the major project named H2020 MSCA-ETN INNOVEOX (https://innoveox.eu) and sponsored by European Union’s EU Framework Program for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 under Grant Agreement No 861369. Therefore, according to the regulation of this program, I will mainly work in Ineris in France, spend about 6 months working and studying in Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in Leuven in Belgium, and finish my PhD program as well as my PhD project within 3 years. Secondly, I would like to summarize my PhD project. Freshwater is increasingly endangered by organic chemical pollutants from human activities that threaten the ecosystem and biodiversity. Therefore, discovering a potential waste-water treatment method is in urgent need. A class of treatment technologies, overall termed Advanced Oxidation Processes (AOP), is receiving high attention for the degradation of these hazardous pollutants from wastewater because of their distinct advantages compared to conventional technologies, the most important one being that they effectively degrade recalcitrant components without generating a secondary waste stream as is the case for, e.g., membrane processes. AOPs tend to produce degradation products that are more polar than the parent pollutants. Current analytical methodologies are not completely suited to analyze a large range of pollutants particularly for polar to very polar substances. Direct injection of the sample can be performed but toxicological level of many of these pollutants (ng/L level) cannot generally be reached. Therefore, there is a current need to develop reliable analytical methodologies that are able to reflect the real composition of waste water pollution at trace levels particularly after degradation treatment. Pre-concentration of contaminants in waste water is particularly challenging due to the complexity of the matrix. As degradation products are expected to be mostly polar, only the dissolved phase will be studied. Enrichment methods based on solid phase extraction (SPE) will be evaluated and compared with large volume direct injections. Since compounds with a large variety in polarity will be considered, multi-mode SPE cartridges will be prepared in-house by combining different SPE sorbents. These sorbents will first be evaluated for a representative test sample to identify the most suitable combination of sorbents and retention/elution strategies. The developed protocol will then be applied to real samples generated in an industrial setting. Analysis will be performed using liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry instrument. Data treatment will be particularly studied to produce a methodology suited for the determination and identification of a large range of contaminant with particular focus on generated polar degradation products.