Development of analytical methods for the determination of different classes of emerging pollutants (steroid hormones, antimicrobials, perfluoroalkyl substances, algal and cyano- toxins, benzensulfonamides, benzo-triazoles, benzothiazoles) at low concentration in surface waters, wastewaters, soil, compost by extraction /preconcentration procedures followed by chromatographic techniques (HPLC-UV, HPLC-MS/MS, HPLC-FD, GC-FID, GC-MS).
The main tasks are:
- Design, preparation, and application of various types of carbonaceous sorbents from circular economy bio-wastes (e.g., biochar from rice husk hash, beans, melon, orange and pumpkin peel) for solid-phase extraction (cartridge and innovative set up) in waters
- Preparation and application of polymeric membranes for thin film microextraction (TF-ME) in aqueous samples
- Green methodologies, e.g. ultrasound assisted extraction (USE) and microwave assisted extraction (MAE), for contaminants in compost and soil
- Greenness assessment by means of the most recently proposed green-metrics, namely AGREEprep and sample preparation metric of sustainability (SPMS)
Food
Development of analytical methods for different classes of emerging contaminants (e.g., steroid hormones and fluoroquinolones) at low concentration in vegetables, fruits and beverages by coupling ad-hoc liquid-solid extractions with clean-up procedures followed by selective determination in HPLC-MS/MS.
Biological Matrices
Development of analytical methods for the extraction and clean-up of biologically active pharmaceuticals (steroid hormones, fluoroquinolones, β-lactams) in human plasma and urine. The main tasks are:
- Preparation and application of polymerized high internal phase emulsions (polyHIPEs) and molecular imprinting polyHIPEs for packed-cartridge micro-solid-phase extraction (µ-SPE)
- Design and application of various types of carbonaceous materials from renewable sources (e.g., humic acids and bio-wastes) for magnetic SPE and pipette-tip SPE