Diuron is one of the most common herbicides used in agriculture with long persistence and high toxicity causing a certain hazard to the environment. Thus, this is necessary to control the residue levels of diuron in a natural environment. To achieve this goal, a diffusive gradient in thin-films technique (DGT), as a new method for in-situ sampling, is described in this paper, which can provide the time-weighted average concentration of target compounds in the sampling period. DGT consists of XAD18 resin gel can accumulate up to 73.58 ug diuron in lab conditions and without significant negative performance under varies range of pH (4 to 9), ionic strength (0.001 to 0.5 mmol L−1) and dissolved organic matter(0–20 mg L−1). The string rate of more than 100 rpm indicated the DGT will not likely be affected by flow rate in the aquatic environment. The study successfully indicates the DGT's performance on diuron, providing a promising technique for future investigation of distribution and occurrence in the natural environment. © 2020 Elsevier B.V.