Application of preparative capillary gas chromatography (pcGC), automated structure generation and mutagenicity prediction to improve effect-directed analysis of genotoxicants in a contaminated groundwater

Abstract

The results suggest pcGC as a high-resolution fractionation tool and MOLGEN-MS to improve structure elucidation, whilst mutagenicity prediction failed in our study to predict identified genotoxicants. Genotoxicity, mutagenicity and carcinogenicity caused by chemicals are complex processes, and prediction from chemical structure still appears to be quite difficult. Progress in this field would significantly support EDA and risk assessment of environmental mixtures.

Evolution and status of preparative gas chromatography as a green sample-preparation technique

“…Together with the injection step, the collection can be considered the most critical process responsible for the losses of volatiles, thus for reduced recoveries. Different techniques have been used for the condensation of volatiles after the chromatographic process, such as short wide-bore capillary tubes, also known as open tubular traps (OTTs) [19,23,25,27,28,31,37], commercially available preparative fraction collectors [20][21][22]24,26,29,35,36], with or without the use of sorbents, and cooled glass tubes. The fraction recovery of volatile components strongly depends on an optimal selection of instrumental parameters.…”

“…Prep-GC methods were recently employed for various purposes, such as the isolation of structural isomers present in complex mixtures [27,37]:  pure substances in the fields of flavor and fragrance [26,28,30,31,35,36] and the environment [21,24,27];  impurities in pharmaceutical products [22]; and,  trace amounts of essential oil components for the assessment of organoleptic properties [23,25,30]. Prep-GC methods were also used for the collection of enantiomeric pure components exploiting derivatized cyclodextrins as chiral selectors [13].…”

“…Since 2010, reviews, mainly based on packed columns [15] or generally on natural-product isolation [16], books [17][18][19] and applications of prep-GC in different fields have been reported using capillary columns [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37], directly connected to a preparative station or exploiting a heart-cut step with a Deans switch (DS) device at the end of the GC column to allow switching between detector and sample collector [19,27,28,31,[35][36][37]. Furthermore, at least four patents were published in PCGC [38][39][40][41].…”

Comparison of bioaugmented EGSB and GAC–FBB reactors and their combination with aerobic SBR for the abatement of chlorophenols

“…It can be present in wastewater of the pulp industry resulting from the widely used ECF-type pulp bleaching process [1]. It has been also detected in groundwater [2] and in contaminated barrel-aged wine from Quercus sp. oak wood [3].…”

“…oak wood [3]. has been described as genotoxicant [2] and the US-EPA has claimed about the high toxicity of 246TCP in contact with the human skin. Therefore, it has been included in the List of Priority Pollutants of the US-EPA and it is also listed in the European Directive 2006/ 11/EC on pollution caused by certain dangerous substances discharged into the aquatic environment of the Community (List I, organohalogen compounds).…”