Suspect and non-target screening: the last frontier in environmental analysis

Area of Science:

• Environmental Chemistry and Analytical Science
• Environmental Science and Ecology

Background:

• Ecosystems contain thousands of exogenous chemicals, necessitating advanced analytical methods for detection.
• Current analytical strategies struggle with the unbiased discovery and identification of a vast number of environmental substances.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review the state-of-the-art in suspect and non-target screening (SNTS) techniques for environmental analysis.
• To critically evaluate the workflow, applications, challenges, and knowledge gaps associated with SNTS implementation.

Main Methods:

• Comprehensive review of SNTS methodologies, covering sampling, sample treatment, instrumental analysis, and data processing.
• Evaluation of normalized workflows and computational requirements for unbiased chemical discovery.
• Assessment of recent applications in environmental occurrence and xenobiotic exposure studies.

Main Results:

• SNTS techniques provide powerful tools for disentangling the environmental occurrence of exogenous chemicals.
• Potential applications span various environmental matrices (aquatic, atmospheric, solid, biological) and research areas.
• Significant technical and computational demands, alongside time-consuming identification, are key challenges.

Conclusions:

• SNTS is a promising approach for comprehensive environmental chemical analysis, contaminant prioritization, and exposure assessment.
• Harmonization of methods and addressing knowledge gaps are crucial for the widespread and effective implementation of SNTS.
• Further research and standardization are needed to overcome implementation challenges and ensure reliable future applications.