This book endeavours to answer the following questions: what interface to use to solve "my detection problem? can I obtain enough sensitivity for the confirmation on my compound in real-world environmental samples? is there enough structural information? The present book aims to provide a critical evaluation of LC-MS in environmental chemistry and it is structured in different areas. Apart from an introductory section with fundamental aspects, application areas using the most relevant interfacing systems (PB, TSP, ES) for the characterization of environmental compounds are included. In this sense, applications are discussed on the characterization of the most relevant compounds of environmental interest such as pesticides, detergents, dyes, polar metabolites, waste streams, organotic compounds and marine toxins with comparison between different interfacing systems. Finally, new methods and strategies in LC-MS, e.g. the use of capillary electrophoresis, MS together with on-line post-column systems in LC-MS are also shown.

Author Biography

Prof. dr. Barcelo Damia, Director of the Catalan Institute for Water Research (ICRA) and Professor at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA), Barcelona, Spain. His expertise is in water quality assessment and management, fate, risk and removal of emerging contaminants in wastewater treatment plants and analysis, fate and risk of emerging contaminants and nanomaterials in the aquatic environment. He published over 900 papers, 200 book chapters and has h index 91. He was a coordinator of several national and EU projects and at the moment he coordinates two EU projects: GLOBAQUA , on multiple stressors in the aquatic environment and SEA-on-a-CHIP, on the development of sensor technolgies for emerging contamaints in marine aquaculture. He is CoEditor in Chief of the journal Science of Total Environment and the book series Comprehensive Analytical Chemistry, both form Elsevier..