Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices

Godfrey, Ruth; Dunscombe, Jonathan; Gravell, Anthony; Hunter, Ann; Barrow, Mark P.; Keulen, Geertje Van; Desbrow, Claire; Townsend, Rachel

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136313

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Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices

Ruth Godfrey

, Jonathan Dunscombe, Anthony Gravell, Ann Hunter, Mark P. Barrow

, Geertje Van Keulen

, Claire Desbrow, Rachel Townsend

Chemosphere, Volume: 308, Start page: 136313

Swansea University Authors: Ruth Godfrey , Anthony Gravell, Ann Hunter, Geertje Van Keulen , Rachel Townsend

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136313

Abstract

Environmental pollution has strong links to adverse human health outcomes with risks of pollution through production, use, ineffective wastewater (WW) remediation, and/or leachate from landfill. ‘Fit-for-purpose’ monitoring approaches are critical for better pollution control and mitigation of harm,...

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Published in:	Chemosphere
ISSN:	0045-6535
Published:	Elsevier BV 2022
Online Access:	Check full text
URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa61153

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As a manual approach, reduced extraction times (hours to ∼20 min/sample) with largely reproducible (albeit lower) recoveries of a range of pharmaceuticals and biocidal surfactants have been reported. Its application has shown clear differentiation of matrices via chemometrics, and the measurement of pollutants of interest to the UK WW industry at concentrations significantly above suggested instrument detection limits (IDL) for sludge, indicating insufficient removal and/or bioaccumulation during WW treatment. Furthermore, new pollutant candidates of emerging concern were identified – these included detergents, polymers and pharmaceuticals, with quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) biocides observed at 2.3–70.4 mg/kg, and above levels associated with priority substances for environmental quality regulation (EQSD). Finally, the QuEChERS protocol was adapted to function as a fully automated workflow, further reducing the resource to complete both the preparation and analysis to <40 min. This operated with improved recovery for soil and biota (>62%), and when applied to a largely un-investigated clay matrix, acceptable recovery (88.0–131.1%) and precision (≤10.3% RSD) for the tested pharmaceuticals and biocides was maintained. 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spelling	2022-10-06T11:05:22.6024551 v2 61153 2022-09-07 Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices b7e381bae1b3f74a3521be56c9b2d2ae 0000-0002-8830-3625 Ruth Godfrey Ruth Godfrey true false 9c8245b8c624e2e57349552830b2ca2c Anthony Gravell Anthony Gravell true false 5c583a55906567a426ad699a8d0d6607 Ann Hunter Ann Hunter true false 6b2c798924ac19de63e2168d50b99425 0000-0002-6044-1575 Geertje Van Keulen Geertje Van Keulen true false f796a4ed6bd6dd21ede2117babea3db9 0000-0002-8019-6511 Rachel Townsend Rachel Townsend true false 2022-09-07 MEDS Environmental pollution has strong links to adverse human health outcomes with risks of pollution through production, use, ineffective wastewater (WW) remediation, and/or leachate from landfill. ‘Fit-for-purpose’ monitoring approaches are critical for better pollution control and mitigation of harm, with current sample preparation methods for complex environmental matrices typically time-consuming and labour intensive, unsuitable for high-throughput screening.This study has shown that a modified ‘Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe’ (QuEChERS) sample preparation is a viable alternative for selected environmental matrices required for pollution monitoring (e.g. WW effluent, treated sludge cake and homogenised biota tissue). As a manual approach, reduced extraction times (hours to ∼20 min/sample) with largely reproducible (albeit lower) recoveries of a range of pharmaceuticals and biocidal surfactants have been reported. Its application has shown clear differentiation of matrices via chemometrics, and the measurement of pollutants of interest to the UK WW industry at concentrations significantly above suggested instrument detection limits (IDL) for sludge, indicating insufficient removal and/or bioaccumulation during WW treatment. Furthermore, new pollutant candidates of emerging concern were identified – these included detergents, polymers and pharmaceuticals, with quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) biocides observed at 2.3–70.4 mg/kg, and above levels associated with priority substances for environmental quality regulation (EQSD). Finally, the QuEChERS protocol was adapted to function as a fully automated workflow, further reducing the resource to complete both the preparation and analysis to <40 min. This operated with improved recovery for soil and biota (>62%), and when applied to a largely un-investigated clay matrix, acceptable recovery (88.0–131.1%) and precision (≤10.3% RSD) for the tested pharmaceuticals and biocides was maintained. Therefore, this preliminary study has shown the successful application of a high-throughput QuEChERS protocol across a range of environmental solids for potential deployment in a regulated laboratory. Journal Article Chemosphere 308 136313 Elsevier BV 0045-6535 Environmental monitoring; Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; Medicinal compounds; QuEChERS; Chemometrics; High-throughput 1 12 2022 2022-12-01 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136313 COLLEGE NANME Medical School COLLEGE CODE MEDS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) The authors acknowledge support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (Grant numbers: EP/L504865/1 and EP/K502935/1), Biotage, UK and Anatune Ltd in delivering this work. 2022-10-06T11:05:22.6024551 2022-09-07T10:40:16.3755384 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences Swansea University Medical School - Medicine Ruth Godfrey 0000-0002-8830-3625 1 Jonathan Dunscombe 2 Anthony Gravell 3 Ann Hunter 4 Mark P. Barrow 0000-0002-6474-5357 5 Geertje Van Keulen 0000-0002-6044-1575 6 Claire Desbrow 7 Rachel Townsend 0000-0002-8019-6511 8 61153__25315__c701c5d169734862a216187533964b31.pdf 61153_VoR.pdf 2022-10-06T11:02:53.5699793 Output 3330274 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2022 The Authors. This is an open access article under the CC BY license true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
spellingShingle	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices Ruth Godfrey Anthony Gravell Ann Hunter Geertje Van Keulen Rachel Townsend
title_short	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
title_full	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
title_fullStr	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
title_full_unstemmed	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
title_sort	Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices
author_id_str_mv	b7e381bae1b3f74a3521be56c9b2d2ae 9c8245b8c624e2e57349552830b2ca2c 5c583a55906567a426ad699a8d0d6607 6b2c798924ac19de63e2168d50b99425 f796a4ed6bd6dd21ede2117babea3db9
author_id_fullname_str_mv	b7e381bae1b3f74a3521be56c9b2d2ae_*_Ruth Godfrey 9c8245b8c624e2e57349552830b2ca2c__Anthony Gravell 5c583a55906567a426ad699a8d0d6607__Ann Hunter 6b2c798924ac19de63e2168d50b99425__Geertje Van Keulen f796a4ed6bd6dd21ede2117babea3db9_**_Rachel Townsend
author	Ruth Godfrey Anthony Gravell Ann Hunter Geertje Van Keulen Rachel Townsend
author2	Ruth Godfrey Jonathan Dunscombe Anthony Gravell Ann Hunter Mark P. Barrow Geertje Van Keulen Claire Desbrow Rachel Townsend
format	Journal article
container_title	Chemosphere
container_volume	308
container_start_page	136313
publishDate	2022
institution	Swansea University
issn	0045-6535
doi_str_mv	10.1016/j.chemosphere.2022.136313
publisher	Elsevier BV
college_str	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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department_str	Swansea University Medical School - Medicine{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}Swansea University Medical School - Medicine
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description	Environmental pollution has strong links to adverse human health outcomes with risks of pollution through production, use, ineffective wastewater (WW) remediation, and/or leachate from landfill. ‘Fit-for-purpose’ monitoring approaches are critical for better pollution control and mitigation of harm, with current sample preparation methods for complex environmental matrices typically time-consuming and labour intensive, unsuitable for high-throughput screening.This study has shown that a modified ‘Quick Easy Cheap Effective Rugged and Safe’ (QuEChERS) sample preparation is a viable alternative for selected environmental matrices required for pollution monitoring (e.g. WW effluent, treated sludge cake and homogenised biota tissue). As a manual approach, reduced extraction times (hours to ∼20 min/sample) with largely reproducible (albeit lower) recoveries of a range of pharmaceuticals and biocidal surfactants have been reported. Its application has shown clear differentiation of matrices via chemometrics, and the measurement of pollutants of interest to the UK WW industry at concentrations significantly above suggested instrument detection limits (IDL) for sludge, indicating insufficient removal and/or bioaccumulation during WW treatment. Furthermore, new pollutant candidates of emerging concern were identified – these included detergents, polymers and pharmaceuticals, with quaternary ammonium compound (QAC) biocides observed at 2.3–70.4 mg/kg, and above levels associated with priority substances for environmental quality regulation (EQSD). Finally, the QuEChERS protocol was adapted to function as a fully automated workflow, further reducing the resource to complete both the preparation and analysis to <40 min. This operated with improved recovery for soil and biota (>62%), and when applied to a largely un-investigated clay matrix, acceptable recovery (88.0–131.1%) and precision (≤10.3% RSD) for the tested pharmaceuticals and biocides was maintained. Therefore, this preliminary study has shown the successful application of a high-throughput QuEChERS protocol across a range of environmental solids for potential deployment in a regulated laboratory.
published_date	2022-12-01T14:23:14Z
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Use of QuEChERS as a manual and automated high-throughput protocol for investigating environmental matrices

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