Recent Progress in the Analysis and Detection of Pollutants of Emerging Concern in Environmental and Food Samples

Dear Colleagues,

Trends in analytical chemistry are towards the miniaturization and simplification of sample treatment, as well as the multiresidue and automatization of the analysis. The quantitatively trace amounts together with the complicated matrix of environmental and food samples have led the analysis of pollutants of emerging concern (namely pharmaceuticals and personal care products, household and industrial products, new pesticides, or microplastics) to become a challenging and critical issue.

Several innovative techniques are being developed in order to increase sample throughput, reduce solvent consumption, and obtain a higher enrichment factor of methods. Special emphasis is placed on microextraction procedures using newly developed materials and environmentally friendly solvents. Chromatographic techniques coupled with mass spectrometry play a pivotal role in determinations. The progress in sensitivity and resolution of mass spectrometers provides the possibility of detecting a plethora of contaminants in a single analysis. The separation and determination of analytes such as enantiomers by chiral chromatography and metabolites or transformation products using hydrophilic interaction chromatography are some examples of recent trends.

This Special Issue aims to cover the recent development in all aspects related to the analysis of pollutants of emerging concern in environmental and food matrices. Researchers of different sample preparation approaches and chromatographic applications are all warmly invited to propose state-of-the-art reviews, perspectives and research articles.

Dr. Julia Martín
Prof. Dr. Esteban Alonso
Guest Editors

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