Recent trends in the liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry analysis of organic contaminants in environmental samples

An overview of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry methods used for the determination of trace organic contaminants in environmental samples is presented. Among the organic contaminants the focus is given on five groups of emerging contaminants that raised most concern as environmental contaminants and therefore attracted attention of a research community: pharmaceuticals, drugs of abuse, polar pesticides, perfluorinated compounds and nanoparticles. Various aspects of current LC–MS methodology, using tandem and hybrid MS instruments, including sample preparation, are discussed.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the projects SCARCE (Consolider-Ingenio 2010 CSD2009-00065) and, CEMAGUA (CGL2007-64551/HID). SP acknowledges the contract from the Ramón y Cajal Program of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. Cristina Postigo acknowledges the European Social Fund and AGAUR (Generalitat de Catalunya, Spain) for their economical support through the FI pre-doctoral grant.Peer reviewe