Events
Special Seminar of Environmental Analysis, "The pretreatment method of environmental samples, and the principle of LC/MS/MS"
Date: April 22, 2009
Venue: Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, China
Organized by:
Kyoto University Global COE Program "Global Center for Education and Research on Human Security Engineering for Asian Megacities"
Co-organized by:
Kyoto University EML Program "international Center for Human Resource Development in Environmental Management"
Number of attendants: 20
Report 033
Outline
The Shenzhen base so far has built structures and relations required to launch research. Now we are planning to conduct research regarding comprehension of the current state of water contaminants in water environment, and sophistication of water-purifying system employing membrane filtration. Meanwhile, Chinese water environment is supposedly extremely polluted, and to understand the behavior of infinitesimal compounds, such as endocrine-disrupting chemicals and PPCPs, we need to pay close attention when performing analyses. However no professor is expert in environmental analysis in Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, thus students do not have an opportunity to learn pretreatment methods and measuring procedures. They have no knowledge on LC/MS/MS, which they will probably use in their future studies; hence it is necessary to provide them with proper information. This seminar intended for all the students at Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University, and also staff from Monitoring Centre to master the following: pretreatment methods of environmental samples and their application, and measurement principles of LC/MS/MS.
Report
At this seminar, the participants received explanations of kinds and methods of pretreatment required to analyze micro pollutant contained in water samples, and also the measurement principle of LC/MS/MS. Some of the methods were familiar to the participants, but there were others that they had not heard of before, making the participants realize a wide range of choices for pretreatment. Moreover, reference was made to a combination of a suitable pretreatment method and a target compound's physical properties and chemical structure, providing basic knowledge regarding a choice of a suitable method of pretreatment. The second half of the seminar was devoted to explain the measurement principle of LC/MS/MS expecting the newly equipped tandem mass spectrometer (MS/MS) would be used as LC/MS/MS. Although some participants had had experience of using GC/MS as mass spectrometry technology, it was necessary to give the information because the measurement principle of GC/MS differs from that of LC/MS/MS. The participants showed some but limited understanding of the structure of an interface, an ionization part, and the principle of fragmentation, probably because it was the first seminar for them. Therefore in addition to this, there is a need for another seminar that they acquire hands-on experience of using LC/MS/MS.
