Our publication “First Novel Workflow for Semiquantification of Emerging Contaminants in Environmental Samples Analyzed by Gas Chromatography–Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization–Quadrupole Time of Flight–Mass Spectrometry” by Reza Aalizadeh, Varvara Nikolopoulou Nikiforos Alygizakis and Nikolaos S. Thomaidis, is available in the journal Analytical Chemistry and featured on the cover of the issue.
The ionization efficiency of emerging contaminants was modeled for the first time in gas chromatography-high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC-HRMS) which is coupled to an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization source (APCI). The recent chemical space has been expanded in environmental samples such as soil, indoor dust, and sediments thanks to recent use of high-resolution mass spectrometric techniques; however, many of these chemicals have remained unquantified. Chemical exposure in dust can pose potential risk to human health, and semiquantitative analysis is potentially of need to semiquantify these newly identified substances and assist with their risk assessment and environmental fate. In this study, a rigorously tested semiquantification workflow was proposed based on GC-APCI-HRMS ionization efficiency measurements. The proposed semiquantification method could be transferred into the household indoor dust sample matrix, and it could include the effect of recovery and matrix in the predictions of actual concentrations of analytes. A suspect compound, which falls inside the application domain of the tool, can be semiquantified by an online web application, free of access at http://trams.chem.uoa.gr/semiquantification/.