Real-Time and Online Monitoring of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds in Environmental Water by an Unmanned Shipborne Mass Spectrometer System

Occurrence, Source Apportionment, and Ecological Risk of Typical Pharmaceuticals in Surface Waters of Beijing, China

“…The use of active sampling to monitor the occurrence of pharmaceuticals in the environment has a certain contingency, and some of the areas that are difficult to collect from pose challenges. There has been a study of the use of remotely controllable electronic devices instead of manual sampling, and there have also been studies using passive sampling techniques to minimize contingency [ 47 , 48 , 49 ]. Therefore, we believe that combining passive sampling techniques with electronic devices is a research direction worth exploring.…”

Portable Mass Spectrometry for On-site Detection of Hazardous Volatile Organic Compounds via Robotic Extractive Sampling

“…Various analytical approaches have been developed for the on-site detection of hazardous VOCs, including gas sensors, electronic noses, spectroscopic methods, miniaturized gas chromatography (GC), portable ion mobility spectrometry (IMS), portable mass spectrometry (MS), and their coupling techniques. − Among them, portable MS approaches have attracted increasing interest in on-site analysis with their high sensitivity, high reliability, fast signal response, and unique environmental suitability. − Particularly, portable MS approaches offer new applications for on-site analysis of complex samples in field environments. − Furthermore, portable MS coupled with unmanned robotic samplers not only improve detection efficiency but also offer new possibilities for investigating hazardous contaminants in inaccessible places such as atmosphere and water environments. − However, unlike the good view and big space in atmosphere and water environments, where unmanned aerial vehicles and unmanned ships are easily controlled for on-site investigation, ,, unmanned manipulation of ground environments is much more complicated due to various unknown obstacles; there have been a few robotic analytical systems developed for on-site detection of hazardous VOCs in ground environments by integrating unmanned samplers and portable MS. Another formidable challenge is that the concentrations of hazardous VOCs in ground environments are usually very low level. , The development of a new robot-MS system that combines remote unmanned sampling and portable MS detection is highly needed for rapid, accurate, and sensitive detection of hazardous VOCs in field environments, but this has yet to be explored.…”