Targeted and suspect screening of contaminants in coastal water and sediment samples in Qatar.

In recent years, high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) combined with separation techniques has allowed comprehensive analysis of contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) as well as their metabolites and transformation products in various environmental samples via retrospective screening. However, to date, only a few suspect or non-targeted studies on the occurrence of CECs in marine aquatic system are reported. In this study, two methods, based on direct injection for seawater, or ultrasound-assisted extraction for sediments, followed by LC-Q-TOF-MS analysis were developed and applied for the simultaneous targeted and screening of contaminants in coastal samples (seawater, particulates and sediment) from Qatar collected in 2017-2018.

Development of a liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry based method for the targeted and suspect screening of contaminants in the pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata.

A rapid method based on solvent extraction followed by direct injection in liquid chromatography-quadrupole-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-Q-TOF-MS) was developed for the targeted and suspect screening of contaminants in the soft tissues of the pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata. The quantification method was first validated for the targeted analysis of 21 contaminants including some pharmaceutically active compounds, with the relative recoveries ranging from 88 to 123%, and method detection limits generally below 1 ng g on the wet weight (ww) basis. This targeted analysis method was then applied to oyster samples collected around the Qatari coast between 2017/2018, and none of the 21 compounds were detected in these samples.