TY - JOUR
T1 - Current challenges in compound-specific stable isotope analysis of environmental organic contaminants
AU - Elsner, Martin
AU - Jochmann, Maik A.
AU - Hofstetter, Thomas B.
AU - Hunkeler, Daniel
AU - Bernstein, Anat
AU - Schmidt, Torsten C.
AU - Schimmelmann, Arndt
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements This work was supported by the Helmholtz Initiative and Networking Fonds to ME, and by the NSF grant EAR-1052927 to AS. We thank two anonymous reviewers whose helpful comments improved the quality of the manuscript.
PY - 2012/7/1
Y1 - 2012/7/1
N2 - Compound-specific stable-isotope analysis (CSIA) has greatly facilitated assessment of sources and transformation processes of organic pollutants. Multielement isotope analysis is one of the most promising applications of CSIA because it even enables distinction of different transformation pathways. This review introduces the essential features of continuous-flow isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and highlights current challenges in environmental analysis as exemplified for the isotopes of nitrogen, hydrogen, chlorine, and oxygen. Strategies and recent advances to enable isotopic measurements of polar contaminants, for example pesticides or pharmaceuticals, are discussed with special emphasis on possible solutions for analysis of low concentrations of contaminants in environmental matrices. Finally, we discuss different levels of calibration and referencing and point out the urgent need for compound-specific isotope standards for gas chromatography-isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (GC-IRMS) of organic pollutants.
AB - Compound-specific stable-isotope analysis (CSIA) has greatly facilitated assessment of sources and transformation processes of organic pollutants. Multielement isotope analysis is one of the most promising applications of CSIA because it even enables distinction of different transformation pathways. This review introduces the essential features of continuous-flow isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) and highlights current challenges in environmental analysis as exemplified for the isotopes of nitrogen, hydrogen, chlorine, and oxygen. Strategies and recent advances to enable isotopic measurements of polar contaminants, for example pesticides or pharmaceuticals, are discussed with special emphasis on possible solutions for analysis of low concentrations of contaminants in environmental matrices. Finally, we discuss different levels of calibration and referencing and point out the urgent need for compound-specific isotope standards for gas chromatography-isotope-ratio mass spectrometry (GC-IRMS) of organic pollutants.
KW - Gas chromatography-isotope-ratio mass spectrometry
KW - Groundwater contamination
KW - Isotope fractionation
KW - Isotope standard
KW - Pollution source
KW - Transformation pathways
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84863774918&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00216-011-5683-y
DO - 10.1007/s00216-011-5683-y
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:84863774918
SN - 1618-2642
VL - 403
SP - 2471
EP - 2491
JO - Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
JF - Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry
IS - 9
ER -
