Anal Bioanal Chem (2006) 385: 422–424 DOI 10.1007/s00216-006-0450-1 TRENDS Mira Petrovic . Damià Barceló Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry in the analysis of emerging environmental contaminants Published online: 6 May 2006 # Springer-Verlag 2006 Emerging contaminants A wide range of man-made chemicals, designed for use in industry, agriculture, and as consumer goods, and chemi- cals unintentionally formed or produced as by-products of industrial processes or combustion, are potentially of environmental concern. In addition to recognized pollu- tants, numerous new chemicals are synthesized each year and released into environment with unforeseen conse- quences. The term “emerging contaminants” does not necessarily refer to “new substances”, i.e. newly introduced chemicals and their degradation products and/or metabo- lites or by-products, however, but also refers to com- pounds, including naturally occurring compounds, with previously unrecognised adverse effects on ecosystems. “Emerging contaminants” can therefore be defined as contaminants that are currently not included in routine monitoring programmes and which may be candidates for future regulation, depending on research on their (eco) toxicity, potential health effects, public perception, and on monitoring data revealing their occurrence in different environmental compartments [1]. Several groups of compounds have emerged as particularly relevant: – algal and cyanobacterial toxins – brominated flame retardants – disinfection by-products – gasoline additives – hormones and other endocrine-disrupting compounds – organometallic compounds – organophosphate flame retardants and plasticisers – perfluorinated compounds – pharmaceuticals and personal care products – polar pesticides and their degradation and/or transfor- mation products – surfactants and their metabolites The issue of emerging contaminants is closely related to analytical capabilities. Increased sensitivity in mass spec- trometry, as a result of more efficient ionisation techniques and better detectors, has enabled detection of virtually any new and potentially harmful contaminant at a very low level. Consequently, several new or previously ignored and/or unrecognized contaminants have come under scrutiny. LC–MS instrumentation Rapid developments in liquid chromatography–mass spec- trometry (LC–MS) have transformed it into a key tech- nique for analysis of environmental contaminants. The need for increased capabilities in environmental analysis is now driving new strategies and instrument advances. These developments include those with the objective of improv- ing chromatographic separation, for example application of ultra-performance liquid chromatography (UPLC) and high-accuracy mass measurements, and use of time-of- flight (TOF) and quadrupole time-of-flight (QqTOF) instruments. The main advances improving the sensitivity and specificity of environmental analyses are the applica- tion of tandem MS instruments (triple quadrupole QqQ) and LC–hybrid MS (QqTOF and quadrupole linear ion trap-QqLIT). In general, when using LC–MS–MS (QqQ) excellent sensitivity is obtained in the selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode. Confirmation of the identity of the target compound is achieved by monitoring two characteristic precursor-product transitions, which earns four identifica- tion points (IP) and fulfils the requirements for identifica- tion and confirmation of environmental contaminants M. Petrovic ICREA - Catalan Institution for Research and Advance Studies, Passeig Lluis Companys 23, 08010 Barcelona, Spain e-mail: mpeqam@cid.csic.es M. Petrovic . D. Barceló (*) Department of Environmental Chemistry, IIQAB-CSIC, Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain e-mail: dbcqam@cid.csic.es