Le réchauffement de la planète est une préoccupation mondiale à notre époque. Celui-ci peut s’expliquer en partie par les grandes émissions de CO2 dans l’atmosphère depuis le début de l’industrialisation. Parmi les plus grands émetteurs de CO2, il y a entre autres les véhicules motorisés, le chauffage au charbon et les raffineries de pétrole. Depuis quelques années, un processus commence à être utilisé pour réduire les émissions de CO2 atmosphérique. Ce processus est la capture du CO2 par des solvants aminés régénérables. Dans le cadre de ma recherche, des échantillons d’un solvant aminé qui ont subi un traitement de capture et de régénération du CO2 et qui ont passé différents temps dans ces processus ont été analysés pour déterminer les différents produits de dégradation de ce solvent. L’identification des produits de dégradation permet d’optimiser la méthode de capture du CO2 pour éviter leur production et donc garder son efficacité le plus longtemps possible. La chromatographie liquide couplée à la spectrométrie de masse (LC-MS) a été utilisée pour séparer et identifier les différents produits de dégradation. L’utilisation de la spectrométrie de masse à haute résolution (HRMS) a permis l’identification des formules chimiques les plus probables pour les produits de dégradation présents. L’ajout d’une cellule de collision à la HRMS a permis d’obtenir plus d’information par fragmentation sur les différents groupes fonctionnels et donc sur la structure des composés inconnus. Lorsque les structures possibles sont peu nombreuses pour une telle formule chimique, des étalons ont été utilisés pour comparer les spectres obtenus et confirmer les structures. Pour les composés ayant trop de possibilités de structures moléculaires, d’autres méthodes d’analyse ont été effectuées, telle la chromatographie gazeuse couplée à la spectrométrie de masse (GC-MS), la spectrométrie à mobilité ionique et la spectroscopie à résonnance magnétique nucléaire (NMR) suite à une collecte de fractions en chromatographie liquide. Au final, aucun nouveau produit de dégradation n’a pu être identifié avec une certitude de 100 %. Le niveau de confiance envers la structure proposée est par contre assez élevé pour certains d’entre eux, mais la difficulté d’obtention d’étalons rend l’identification assez exigeante. L’ensemble de ces travaux de mémoire a été réalisé dans le cadre d’un partenariat industriel. Une autre partie du projet était le développement d’une méthode pour détecter et quantifier deux N-nitrosamines à une concentration de 1 µg/L. La validation de la méthode pour la quantification des nitrosamines a également été effectuée. Les deux nitrosamines sont des résidus des processus de dégradation des amines du partenaire industriel et il est recommandé que leur concentration soit inférieure à 1 µg/L lors du rejet des eaux usées dans une étendue d’eau naturelle (US Environnemental Protection Agency). Il est donc important de les déterminer pour éviter de contaminer les cours d’eaux. La méthode développée utilise une extraction liquide sur support solide comme préparation d’échantillon ainsi qu’une méthode LC-MS pour la séparation et la quantification. La plus grande quantité retrouvée d’une des deux nitrosamines est de 7,30 µg/L, ce qui est légèrement au-dessus des recommandations. / Global warming is one of the most important concerns of this century. It can be associated in major part to CO2 emissions into the atmosphere since the beginning of industrialization. The major CO2 emitters are motorized vehicles, coal heating and oil refineries. Some years ago, a scrubbing process started being used to reduce atmospheric emissions of CO2 from coal burning plants. This process is known as CO2 capture by regenerable amine-based solvents. As part of this master’s research, samples from an amine-based solvent that was subjected to CO2 capture for different amounts of time during the capture regeneration process were analyzed to determine the various degradation products formed from the capture solvent. Identification of the degradation products and their kinetics of formation allow optimization of the CO2 capture method, ideally to avoid their formation and to maximize the efficiency of the capture process over a longer period of use. Liquid chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was used to initially select various degradation products present in reasonable abundance. The use of high resolution mass spectrometry (HRMS) allowed the identification of the most probable chemical formulas for the degradation products found in the capture solvent. Addition of a collision cell to HRMS provided more information on the different functional groups by MS fragmentation, and therefore more structural information on the unknown compounds. When there were a few possible structures for a single unknown compound, standards were used to compare the MS spectra obtained and confirm the structures. For the unknown compounds with too many plausible structures, additional analysis methods were used, like gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS), ionic mobility mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) after fraction collection by preparative liquid chromatography. No degradation products were identified with 100 % certainty. The level of confidence towards proposed structures was quite high for some of the unknowns; however, the standards needed to confirm their identification were too costly to synthesize. This entire master’s project was carried out in collaboration with an industrial partner. A secondary part of this master’s project involved the development of a method to detect and quantify two N-nitrosamines at a concentration of 1 µg/L. Validation of the method for the quantification of the two N-nitrosamines was also carried out. The two analytes were residues of the degradation process of a different amine-based CO2 capture solvent where the recommended concentration of the residues should be under 1 µg/L when releasing the wastewater into environmental waters (US Environnemental Protection Agency). It is therefore important to determine these N-nitrosamines to avoid contamination of water bodies. The developed method used solid-supported liquid-liquid extraction (SLE) for sample preparation and LC-MS for separation and quantification. The highest amount of one of the two N-nitrosamines found in the samples supplied by the industrial partner was 7.30 µg/L, which was over the recommended level.

Mass spectroscopy imaging (MSI) has become a vital tool in modern research due to its ability to visualize the spatial distribution of molecules within tissue samples. The collaboration between researchers at AZ, the University of Gothenburg, and Chalmers University of Technology using the NanoSIMS instrument and MSI-SIMS technology has opened up new avenues of exploration in pharmaceutical development, particularly in examining drugs and metabolites at sub-cellular levels. This groundbreaking research has the potential to significantly improve the efficacy and safety of future pharmaceutical products. NanoSIMS possesses a unique imaging and processing technique that enables high-resolution imaging of cellular structures and subcellular compartments. This powerful tool allows for the visualization and measurement of elements and isotopes at the subcellular level. The technique involves bombarding a sample with a focused primary ion beam, which causes the emission of secondary ions. These secondary ions are then analyzed to determine the elemental and isotopic composition of the sample. NanoSIMS is particularly useful for analyzing biomolecules since traditional Mass spectrometry methods cannot provide information about how molecules behave at the cellular level. Given that many of the drugs used today have intra-cellular targets, hence understanding the drug's cellular pathways is extremely important, especially in cases where the risk for organ toxicity is high due to the high dosage of the drugs.  Our data from the image analysis indicated the presence of amiodarone inside the lysosomes; however, the lack of enrichment from the 13C portion of the dual-labeled molecule made it difficult to reach a variation below the LOD. Since our LOD is relatively high when working with 13C12C, we focused on the fact that accuracy, precision, and sensitivity would be the most crucial factors in our study. After adjusting these parameters, we obtained an image that made the measurement possible. This project aims to utilize a dual-labeled drug (13C and 127I) to bridge the absolute quantification ability of the 13C labeling scheme to the more sensitive labeling scheme. The focus of this study lies therefore on optimization and the relationship between Spatial resolution, Sensitivity, Mass Resolution, Accuracy, and Precision. This technique is extremely promising, but the limit of detection is relatively high mainly due to the high percentage of carbon in the sample. Despite this fact, we were able to present some valuable data.  Our analysis showed that the sensitivity of the 127I is much better than 13C, however, we produced an image where the ratio between the labels was above the detection limit. Using this data, a Relative sensitivity factor (RSF) value was measured, and the concentration of the drug could be estimated by applying the quantification equation.