Comprehensive Analysis of Highly Polar Contaminants in Drinking Water

考虑到当今商业用途的约 85,000 种化学品，甚至水中还有更多目前未识别的天然成分和消毒副产物，很难评估水生环境中化学污染的环境影响。饮用水是天然和人为化学物质的特别复杂的混合物。在过去的四十年中，已经发现了数千种新的饮用水污染物，并对有害污染物进行了监管，但目前未识别的物种可能对环境和人类健康构成威胁或有益。我们对饮用水化学污染的认识中的主要差距与高极性污染物有关，这些污染物代表水消毒处理或微生物活动中溶解的有机物的分解产物。识别和调查饮用水中这些新出现的污染物是我们提出的 NSERC 资助的研究计划的目标。为此，我们将使用基于电喷雾电离、超高效液相色谱、微分离子淌度 (FAIMS) 和质谱技术相结合的强大分析方法。我们最近在研究中开发的这些新技术能够以快速、方便的方式分离、检测和识别新出现的（以前未知的）饮用水污染物，而无需昂贵的样品制备方案。利用这些独特的分析能力，我们将能够在各种消毒处理（氯化、臭氧、氯胺化或紫外线辐射）之前和之后调查来自地面和地表源的各种饮用水样本，以提供有关新型饮用水污染物的形成、发生、归宿和环境影响的综合信息，这些污染物以前无法通过水分析的传统技术进行研究。

It is difficult to evaluate an environmental impact of chemical contamination in aquatic environments considering ~85,000 chemicals in commercial use today and even a larger group of currently unidentified natural components and disinfection by-products in water. Drinking water is an especially complex mixture of naturally occurring and anthropogenic chemicals. Over the past four decades, thousands of new drinking water contaminants have been identified and hazardous pollutants are regulated, but currently unidentified species may pose threats or be beneficial to the environment and human health. The major gap in our knowledge about the chemical contamination of drinking water is related to highly polar contaminants representing decomposition products of dissolved organic matter from water disinfection treatments or from microbial activities. The identification and investigation of these emerging pollutants in drinking water is the objective of our proposed NSERC-funded research program. For this purpose, we will use powerful analytical methods based on combining the technologies of Electrospray Ionization, Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography, Differential Ion Mobility (FAIMS) and Mass Spectrometry. These novel techniques, developed recently in our research, are capable of separating, detecting and identifying emerging (previously unknown) drinking water pollutants in a quick and convenient fashion without a need for costly sample preparation protocols. Using these unique analytical capabilities, we will be able to investigate a wide range of drinking water samples from ground and surface sources before and after various disinfection treatments (chlorination, ozonation, chloramination or UV radiation) to provide the comprehensive information on formation, occurrence, fate, and environmental impact of novel drinking water contaminants which could not be previously studied by conventional techniques in water analysis.