Maria Concetta Bruzzoniti

QuEChERS sample preparation for the determination of pesticides and other organic residues in environmental matrices: a critical review

Quick, Easy, Cheap, Effective, Rugged, and Safe (QuEChERS) is an extraction and clean-up technique originally developed for recovering pesticide residues from fruits and vegetables. Since its introduction, and until December 2013, about 700 papers have been published using the QuEChERS technique, according to a literature overview carried out using SciFinder, Elsevier SciVerse, and Google search engines. Most of these papers were dedicated to pesticide multiresidue analysis in food matrices, and this topic has been thoroughly reviewed over recent years. The QuEChERS approach is now rapidly developing beyond its original field of application to analytes other than pesticides, and matrices other than food, such as biological fluids and non-edible plants, including Chinese medicinal plants. Recently, the QuEChERS concept has spread to environmental applications by analyzing not only pesticides but also other compounds of environmental concern in soil, sediments, and water. To the best of our knowledge, QuEChERS environmental applications have not been reviewed so far; therefore, in this contribution, after a general discussion on the evolution and changes of the original QuEChERS method, a critical survey of the literature regarding environmental applications of conventional and modified QuEChERS methodology is provided. The overall recoveries obtained with QuEChERS and other extraction approaches (e.g., accelerated solvent extraction, ultrasonic solvent extraction, liquid/solid extraction, and soxhlet extraction) were compared, providing evidence for QuEChERS higher recoveries for various classes of compounds, such as biopesticides, chloroalkanes, phenols, and perfluoroalkyl substances. The role of physicochemical properties of soil (i.e., clay and organic carbon content, as well as cation exchange capacity) and target analytes (i.e., log KOW, water solubility, and vapor pressure) were also evaluated in order to interpret recovery and matrix effect data.

Preconcentration of contaminants in water analysis

Among the environmental areas, in this review attention will be focused on water matrices and both on organic (e.g., pesticides, herbicides, phenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons), inorganic species and anion pollutants, since these kinds of substances include a wide number of compounds with different physical and chemical properties and different effects on human health. Analytical methods for control of quality of waters are required to be highly specific and possibly highly sensitive for the determination of even low amounts of pollutants. The main problems encountered during the analysis are the separation of matrix components from the pollutants of interest and the achievement of low detection limits. Therefore an overview on different materials and techniques available for sample concentration and/or matrix removal will be provided and discussed according to the chemical characteristics of the pollutant that has to be enriched.

Determination of metals in wine with atomic spectroscopy (flame-AAS, GF-AAS and ICP-AES); a review

Metals in wine occur at the mg l-1 level or less and, though not directly related to the taste of the final product, their content should be determined because excess is undesirable, and in some cases prohibited, due to potential toxicity. Lead content in wine, for example, is restricted in several states by legislation to guarantee consumer health protection. Of several methods for metal determination, techniques of atomic spectroscopy are the most sensitive and rapid. Most of the elements present in wine can be determined with these techniques, at concentrations ranging from the mg l-1 to the μg l-1 level. Here, inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), flame atomic absorption spectrometry (flame-AAS) and graphite furnace-atomic absorption spectrometry (GF-AAS) are compared for their characteristics as employed in metal determination in wine.

Metal species determination by ion chromatography

Liquid chromatography has become one of the main powerful analytical tools for the analysis of complex matrices and speciation studies in the field of metal analysis. The basic principles, retention mechanisms, materials and method evolutions are discussed with particular reference to ion chromatography. Classical and more recent applications are presented.

Speciation of copper and manganese in milk by solid-phase extraction/inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry

A speciation method was developed to study distribution of copper and manganese species in cow milk. The method is based upon solid-phase extraction of selective fractions of the analytes, followed by elution and determination by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), using it as a flow-injection detector. Fractions detected were cationic, anionic, neutral and casein-bound. A different behaviour is observed for the two metals.

Preconcentration and separation of haloacetic acids by ion chromatography.

A comparative study was made of the chromatographic behaviour of five haloacetic acids (mono-, dibromoacetic and mono-, di-, trichloroacetic acids). The techniques investigated included reversed-phase ion interaction chromatography with UV detection, suppressed and non-suppressed anion-exchange chromatography. The systems are discussed studying the retention as a function of the mobile phase parameters and the stationary phases used (LiChrospher 100 RP-18, IonPac AS9, AS10 and AS11). A preconcentration step, performed on different substrates, namely LiChrolut-EN and activated vegetal carbon, has been optimized in order to reduce the method detection limits. Results obtained for drinking water samples are shown.

Determination of rare earth elements by ion chromatography. Separation procedure optimization

In the development of research on materials for optical fibres production, the use of pure lanthanum compounds is very important for the manufacture of glasses, since they can play an important role for signal enhancement by fluorescence emission. For this purpose, an ion exchange chromatographic method for rare earth determination has been studied and optimized. The analytical column involved was a multimode ion exchange type and the effectiveness of ligands (namely oxalic and diglycolic acids) on lanthanides elution was investigated. Elutions were performed for ligand concentrations ranging from 0 to 80 mM and pH ranges from 3.0 to 5.5 coupled with a post-column spectrophotometric detection with 4-(2-pyridylazo)resorcinol (PAR) at 520 nm. After optimization, gradient elution enabled the determination of lanthanides with in a total analysis time of 25 min. The method developed has been applied to the analysis of YbF3 (after acidic microwave digestion) for the determination of impurities due to other rare earth elements.

Ion chromatography with inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, a powerful analytical tool for complex matrices estimation of Pt and Pd in environmental samples.

A new method for palladium and platinum direct determination in environmental samples is proposed by coupling ion chromatography with quadrupole inductively coupled plasma MS. In order to optimise Pd and Pt separation and to minimise interference from matrix in real samples, several anionic and cationic stationary phases have been compared at different mobile phase compositions. In particular, the effect of acidity and of the addition of oxalic acid to the eluent on separation and detection performance has been studied, and the anion-exchange column AG11 turned out to be more suitable. After chromatographic and mass spectrometer parameter optimisation, several potential interferences and the main quality parameters of the method, according to the Eurachem-CITAC recommendations, were evaluated: the detection limit for Pt was 5 ng l(-1) while the value for Pd was 230 ng l(-1). The method was successfully employed in the determination of platinum group elements in urban road dust and atmospheric particulates and the complete absence of matrix spectral interferences was demonstrated.

Comparison of prediction power between theoretical and neural-network models in ion-interaction chromatography

The separation by ion-interaction chromatography (IIC) of metal complexes having single and double charges has been studied in order to compare the prediction power of soft (neural-network) and hard modelling (IIC equation). The two approaches have been used to model the retention behaviour as a function of the composition of the mobile phase. With ion-interaction mobile phases, the parameters involved included the concentrations of ion-interaction reagent, organic modifier and ionic strength. From a set of 69 experimental design points (the different mobile phase compositions at which capacity factors are measured), one test set of ten design points and ten training sets, containing from 59 to 11 design points, have been extracted. Chromatographic and chemometric considerations for the selection of the data sets and minimum number of observations required have been discussed. The study showed that the IIC equation predicted more accurately when few experimental data were available, while a similar prediction power was obtained with both models when the number of data was more than 17. Nevertheless the neural-network accounted for a greater versatility without the need to develop an equation.

On-line preconcentration, ion chromatographic separation and spectrophotometric determination of palladium at trace level

A new method for the determination of Pd by ion chromatography and spectrophotometric detection has been developed. The technique is based on the separation of palladium as PdCl4(2-) by anion exchange and on the detection, at a wavelength of 407 nm, of metal as PdI4(2-) after a post-column reaction with KI. The column used was an IonPac AS4 with HCl and HClO4 eluents. The eluent concentration and composition of post-column reagent were optimised in order to obtain the best separation and sensitivity for Pd. In order to reduce the detection limit, an on-line preconcentration step, has been optimised. The method, as developed, was suitable for palladium determination within a 300 ng/l D.L. value. The method applied to a BCR reference material (CRM 277, estuarine sediment) gave satisfactory results in agreement with the certified value within a D.L. value of 1.3 microg/l for the real sample.