Maolida Nihemaiti (SafeCREW Partner UFZ) has published results from the SafeCREW project on the Horizon Results Platform, presenting a novel analytical approach for the improved detection of highly polar disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water.
Only a small fraction of disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water are currently regulated, while the majority, including key contributors to toxicity in disinfected water, remain unknown. Conventional analytical techniques such as gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and reversed-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (RPLC-MS) are poorly suited for highly polar contaminants because these compounds are neither sufficiently volatile for GC-MS nor adequately retained by reversed-phase LC columns. To overcome this analytical gap, the SafeCREW project developed a novel supercritical fluid chromatography-mass spectrometry (SFC-MS) approach that enables the detection and characterization of previously unknown, highly polar sulfonated DBPs in drinking water.