The authors would like to express their gratefulness to all the members of Lakehead University Centre for Analytical Services Environmental Laboratory & Lakehead University Instrumentation Laboratory (LUCAS) who helped us carry out certain analysis required as a part of this work. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of Canada Foundation of Innovation (CFI) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for their financial support to undertake the PhD work in this area. The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.Acknowledgments The authors would like to express their gratefulness to all the members of Lakehead University Centre for Analytical Services Environmental Laboratory & Lakehead University Instrumentation Laboratory (LUCAS) who helped us carry out certain analysis required as a part of this work. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of Canada Foundation of Innovation (CFI) and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) for their financial support to undertake the PhD work in this area;