1 Introduction
Development of human civilization and resulting industrialization has given rise to
environmental pollution. Environmental pollution is a major issue since it has its
influence on human health and is linked with the sustainable development of both
society and economy. It has become a matter of increasing concern due to the
exceeding limits of both regulated and unregulated organic contaminants present in
the aquatic ecosystem. These pollutants are mainly chemicals which are used in
industries and agriculture. A large portion of such pollutants are recalcitrant and
persist in the ecosystem for a longer duration. These toxic compounds possess the
ability to enter the food chain and pose threatening effect to the receiving ecosystem
and also to human health (Radovic et al. 2015) [36, 73, 85]. Environmental
monitoring comprises the measurement of selected physical, chemical and biological environmental variables over a time period. The intent is to accomplish
assessments on the quality of environment of a selected area.
Regardless of progress and advances in analytic techniques, the determination of
organic pollutants present in water is still challenging in the current scenario [72].
The major hurdle behind this failure is complexity, high concentration and number
of pollutants that might be present in the water sample. This fact, along with distinct
chemical characteristics of analytes, makes the application of a single analytical
technique, inappropriate for all potential pollutant present. In the current scenario,
various common techniques have been applied in environmental monitoring which
includes atomic absorption method, thin layer chromatography, UV-Vis spectroscopy, high-pressure liquid chromatography, inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, ion chromatography,
immunoassay and other advanced instrumentations. Because of their promising
characteristics including simplicity, cost-effectiveness, high sensitivity these techniques are widely accepted. TLC (Thin layer chromatography) is a comparatively
cost-effective technique for environmental monitoring, with less reliability on higher
instrumentation, but possesses low sensitivity. Generally adapted instrumental
approaches such as HPLC (High performance liquid chromatography), GC–MS
(Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy), and LC-MS (Liquid chromatographyMass spectroscopy) are widely accepted as official methods for the determination of
environmental pollutant [42]. But, they offer certain disadvantages of being
time-consuming due to complicated sample preparation and expensive. In current
scenario, most of the analytical approaches have coupled chromatographic techniques to mass spectroscopy, as single quarupole or ion trap and more recently triple
quadrupole. In these approaches, number of analytes hardly exceeds 200–300
compounds and pollutants other than target pollutant that possibly is present in the
environmental samples are generally ignored. Hence, there is urgent requirement for
the development of broad range “universal” detection techniques possessing the
ability to detect and identify a large number of pollutants. In this way, a more
realistic and complete knowledge on pollutants present in environmental samples is
256
R. Khan et al.
Development of human civilization and resulting industrialization has given rise to
environmental pollution. Environmental pollution is a major issue since it has its
influence on human health and is linked with the sustainable development of both
society and economy. It has become a matter of increasing concern due to the
exceeding limits of both regulated and unregulated organic contaminants present in
the aquatic ecosystem. These pollutants are mainly chemicals which are used in
industries and agriculture. A large portion of such pollutants are recalcitrant and
persist in the ecosystem for a longer duration. These toxic compounds possess the
ability to enter the food chain and pose threatening effect to the receiving ecosystem
and also to human health (Radovic et al. 2015) [36, 73, 85]. Environmental
monitoring comprises the measurement of selected physical, chemical and biological environmental variables over a time period. The intent is to accomplish
assessments on the quality of environment of a selected area.
Regardless of progress and advances in analytic techniques, the determination of
organic pollutants present in water is still challenging in the current scenario [72].
The major hurdle behind this failure is complexity, high concentration and number
of pollutants that might be present in the water sample. This fact, along with distinct
chemical characteristics of analytes, makes the application of a single analytical
technique, inappropriate for all potential pollutant present. In the current scenario,
various common techniques have been applied in environmental monitoring which
includes atomic absorption method, thin layer chromatography, UV-Vis spectroscopy, high-pressure liquid chromatography, inductively coupled plasma mass
spectrometry, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, ion chromatography,
immunoassay and other advanced instrumentations. Because of their promising
characteristics including simplicity, cost-effectiveness, high sensitivity these techniques are widely accepted. TLC (Thin layer chromatography) is a comparatively
cost-effective technique for environmental monitoring, with less reliability on higher
instrumentation, but possesses low sensitivity. Generally adapted instrumental
approaches such as HPLC (High performance liquid chromatography), GC–MS
(Gas chromatography-Mass spectroscopy), and LC-MS (Liquid chromatographyMass spectroscopy) are widely accepted as official methods for the determination of
environmental pollutant [42]. But, they offer certain disadvantages of being
time-consuming due to complicated sample preparation and expensive. In current
scenario, most of the analytical approaches have coupled chromatographic techniques to mass spectroscopy, as single quarupole or ion trap and more recently triple
quadrupole. In these approaches, number of analytes hardly exceeds 200–300
compounds and pollutants other than target pollutant that possibly is present in the
environmental samples are generally ignored. Hence, there is urgent requirement for
the development of broad range “universal” detection techniques possessing the
ability to detect and identify a large number of pollutants. In this way, a more
realistic and complete knowledge on pollutants present in environmental samples is
256
R. Khan et al.