An intelligent spectral identification approach for the simultaneous detection of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in aquatic environments

With the rapid progression of industrialization, the application and release of endocrine disruptors (EDCs), including bisphenol A (BPA), octylphenol and nonylphenol have significantly increased, presenting substantial health hazards. Conventional analytical techniques, such as high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, are highly sophisticated but suffer from complex procedures and high costs. To overcome these limitations, this study introduces an innovative spectral methodology for the simultaneous detection of multiple aquatic multicomponent EDCs. By leveraging chemical machine vision, specifically with convolutional neural network (CNN) models, we employed a long-path holographic spectrometer for rapid, cost-effective identification of BPA, 4-tert-octylphenol, and 4-nonylphenol in aqueous samples. The CNN, refined with the ResNet-50 architecture, demonstrated superior predictive performance, achieving detection limits as low as 3.34, 3.71 and 4.36 μg/L, respectively. The sensitivity and quantification capability of our approach were confirmed through the analysis of spectral image Euclidean distances, while its universality and resistance properties were validated by assessments of environmental samples. This technology offers significantly advantages over conventional techniques in terms of efficiency and cost, offering a novel solution for EDC monitoring in aquatic environments. The implications of this research extend beyond improved detection speed and cost reduction, presenting new methodologies for analyzing complex chemical systems and contributing to environmental protection and public health.