Trends in the monitoring of legacy and emerging organic pollutants in protected areas

Protected Areas (PAs) are locations for conservation, internationally recognized for their natural, ecological, and/or cultural values. Human presence in PAs is generally limited to minimal or banned exploitation of natural resources. However, different threats to PAs are evident as a result of short and long-range transport of organic pollutants of legacy and emerging concern. There has been a shift of interest in legacy pollutants such as persistent organic pollutants (POPs) to emerging compounds, resulting in a need for improved monitoring strategies in PAs. Here, we highlight the main advances in environmental analytical chemistry for legacy and emerging pollution monitoring in PAs. Trends in sampling, sample preparation and instrumental determination of multiclass organic pollutants in biotic and abiotic matrices are presented and discussed. Here, we considered the most relevant and recent literature regarding organic pollutants in PAs from terrestrial to aquatic landscapes collected within 2015 to the present time frame.     

Trends in biosensing platforms for SARS-CoV-2 detection: A critical appraisal against standard detection tools

In this ongoing theme of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, highly sensitive analytical testing platforms are extremely necessary to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA and antiviral antibodies. To limit the viral spread, prompt and precise diagnosis is crucial to facilitate treatment and ensure effective isolation. Accurate detection of antibodies (IgG and IgM) is imperative to understand the prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 in public and to inspect the proportion of immune individuals. In this review, we demonstrate and evaluate some tests that have been used commonly to detect SARS-CoV-2. These include nucleic acid and serological tests for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and specific antibodies in infected people. Moreover, the vitality of biosensing technologies emphasizing on optical and electrochemical biosensors toward the detection of SARS-CoV-2 has also been discussed here. The early diagnosis of COVID-19 based on detection of reactive oxygen species overproduction because of virus-induced dysfunctioning of lung cells has also been highlighted.     

铁基金属-有机骨架及其复合物高级氧化降解水中新兴有机污染物

新兴有机污染物(Emerging organic contaminants,EOCs)是对人体健康及生态环境具有潜在或实质威胁的新型化学污染物。由于其被频繁使用且能在水生生态系统中持久性存在而对水生生物健康和安全造成严重威胁,故引起大众越来越多的关注。以活性污泥法为代表的传统水处理工艺通常不足以消除这些新兴有机污染物。为高效去除新兴有机污染物,基于新材料的高级氧化技术是最主要的深度处理技术之一。铁基金属-有机骨架(Fe-MOFs)及其复合物在诸多领域得到了广泛的应用,特别是在催化氧化去除水中有机污染物方面展现出良好的应用前景。通过合成方法改进、合成后改性以及与特定功能材料复合等方法可有效提升Fe-MOFs及其相关材料的吸附性能、增强其光吸收特性和促进载流子有效分离等。本文重点综述了Fe-MOFs及其复合物高级氧化(光催化、类芬顿和硫酸根自由基($SO_{4}^{-·}$)介导的氧化)去除水中新兴有机污染物的研究进展,并探讨了未来研究所面临的机遇和挑战。     

Identification and Quantification of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Polyhydroxyalkanoates Produced from Mixed Microbial Cultures and Municipal Organic Wastes at Pilot Scale

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are well-known biodegradable plastics produced by various bacterial strains, whose major drawback is constituted by the high cost of their synthesis. Producing PHAs from mixed microbial cultures and employing organic wastes as a carbon source allows us to both reduce cost and valorize available renewable resources, such as food waste and sewage sludge. However, different types of pollutants, originally contained in organic matrices, could persist into the final product, thus compromising their safety. In this work, the exploitation of municipal wastes for PHA production is evaluated from the environmental and health safety aspect by determining the presence of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in both commercial and waste-based PHA samples. Quantification of PAHs by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry on 24 PHA samples obtained in different conditions showed very low contamination levels, in the range of ppb to a few ppm. Moreover, the contaminant content seems to be dependent on the type of PHA stabilization and extraction, but independent from the type of feedstock. Commercial PHA derived from crops, selected for comparison, showed PAH content comparable to that detected in PHAs derived from organic fraction of municipal solid waste. Although there is no specific regulation on PAH maximum levels in PHAs, detected concentrations were consistently lower than threshold limit values set by regulation and guidelines for similar materials and/or applications. This suggests that the use of organic waste as substrate for PHA production is safe for both the human health and the environment.     

Recent advances in analytical methodologies based on mass spectrometry for the environmental analysis of halogenated organic contaminants

Halogenated organic contaminants, including legislated and potential persistent organic pollutants and their precursors, represent a major environmental concern due to their hazardous effects in humans and wildlife as well as their ability to bioaccumulate through the food chain, their high resistance to environmental degradation, and their long-range atmospheric transport potential. The monitoring of these compounds in the environment at ultra-trace concentration levels requires highly selective and sensitive analytical methodologies. The lack of reference step-by-step methods led to a high number of reliable determinations depending on analytes, the complexity of the sample, and available instrumentation. Thus, this review article is mainly focused on the last advances in the analytical methodologies for the determination of halogenated organic contaminants. Methodologies regarding sample treatment, chromatographic separation, and mass spectrometry analysis have been reviewed to finally highlight the future perspectives for the improvement of the analytical determinations of these compounds and the throughput of environmental control laboratories in this field.     

Secondary Formation of Aromatic Nitroderivatives of Environmental Concern: Photonitration Processes Triggered by the Photolysis of Nitrate and Nitrite Ions in Aqueous Solution

Aromatic nitroderivatives are compounds of considerable environmental concern, because some of them are phytotoxic (especially the nitrophenols, and particularly 2,4-dinitrophenol), others are mutagenic and potentially carcinogenic (e.g., the nitroderivatives of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as 1-nitropyrene), and all of them absorb sunlight as components of the brown carbon. The latter has the potential to affect the climatic feedback of atmospheric aerosols. Most nitroderivatives are secondarily formed in the environment and, among their possible formation processes, photonitration upon irradiation of nitrate or nitrite is an important pathway that has periodically gained considerable attention. However, photonitration triggered by nitrate and nitrite is a very complex process, because the two ionic species under irradiation produce a wide range of nitrating agents (such as ^•NO₂, HNO₂, HOONO, and H₂OONO⁺), which are affected by pH and the presence of organic compounds and, in turn, deeply affect the nitration of aromatic precursors. Moreover, aromatic substrates can highly differ in their reactivity towards the various photogenerated species, thereby providing different behaviours towards photonitration. Despite the high complexity, it is possible to rationalise the different photonitration pathways in a coherent framework. In this context, this review paper has the goal of providing the reader with a guide on what to expect from the photonitration process under different conditions, how to study it, and how to determine which pathway(s) are prevailing in the formation of the observed nitroderivatives.     

Operational risk: Emerging markets,sectors and measurement

The role of decision support systems in mitigating operational risks in firms is well established. However, there is a lack of investment in decision support systems in emerging markets, even though inadequate operational risk management is a key cause of discouraging external investment. This has also been exacerbated by insufficient understanding of operational risk in emerging markets, which can be attributed to past operational risk measurement techniques, limited studies on emerging markets and inadequate data.     

Wide-scope screening of polar contaminants of concern in water: A critical review of liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry-based strategies

The number of chemicals with potential to reach the environment is still largely unknown, which poses great challenges for both environmental scientists and analytical chemists. Liquid chromatography coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) is currently the instrumentation of choice for identification of wide-scope polar chemicals of concern (CECs) in water. This review critically evaluates all steps involved in screening for polar CECs in water, including sampling and extraction, analysis by LC-HRMS, data (pre-)treatment, evaluation and reporting. Passive samplers and direct injection, in combination with LC-HRMS, provide new opportunities compared with conventional grab water sampling, as do instrumental advances such as ion-mobility spectrometry coupled to HRMS (IM-HRMS). In this paper, we argue that target, suspect and non-target screening should not be viewed as three separate principles, but rather as conceptual approaches to general data treatment strategies that can be linked together. Due to the large amount of data generated, smart prioritisation strategies are needed, in particular for non-target screening, to reduce complexity and focus on data of high interest. We critically evaluate existing strategies and consider that each prioritisation step will result in data loss (as any other step in a screening study), requiring compromises depending on the research question to be tackled. Many different data treatment strategies have been developed in recent years, but structure elucidation remains a challenging and time-consuming task. We discuss current and potential future trends, e.g. effect-based methods that can be used as future prioritisation tools, technological advances like IM-HRMS and improved software solutions that can enable new data treatment strategies.     

Sampling and analytical framework for routine environmental monitoring of organic pollutants

Dubious data would lead to incorrect interpretations and consequently faulty conclusions. Environmental monitoring results therefore have to be unambiguous to avoid misunderstanding the problems under investigation. Representative sampling and appropriate laboratory procedures are keys to acquiring quality data in order to draw unbiased conclusions.Although a large number of studies on organic pollutants have been published, few efforts have been directed towards instituting a systematic framework from sampling design to instrumental analysis. Generally, the main components in such a framework should include sampling design, sample preparation, sample extraction, extract purification and fractionation, and quantification (including qualitative and quantitative analyses).This review outlines the sampling and analytical framework appropriate for routine monitoring of organic pollutants, particularly persistent organic pollutants widely occurring in the environment. We emphasize statistically-based sampling schemes and quality-assurance and quality-control measures desirable for environmental monitoring programs.By way of demonstrating their importance, we especially review procedures for collecting unconventional environmental samples (e.g., human blood, breast milk, human hair, fish and bird tissues, and ice and snow) and analytical methods for typical emerging organic chemicals.     

Contaminant concentration on pipe walls following radial jet injection: a computational fluid dynamics approach

A computational fluid dynamics technique has been used to predict the likely concentration levels along a pipe wall of chemicals injected radially from a nozzle. No published empirical data appear to be available, despite the importance of this subject in protecting pipe walls in the vicinity of the dosing point if the chemicals and pipe materials are incompatible. Validation of predictions is by comparison with experimental data for other parameters related to the flow. Where possible, results have been analyzed and presented in dimensionless form so that the article can act as a more generally useful design guide.