TY - JOUR

T1 - DGT Passive Sampling for Quantitative in Situ Measurements of Compounds from Household and Personal Care Products in Waters

AU - Chen, Wei

AU - Li, Yanying

AU - Chen, Chang-Er

AU - Sweetman, Andrew J.

AU - Zhang, Hao

AU - Jones, Kevin C.

PY - 2017/11/21

Y1 - 2017/11/21

N2 - Widespread use of organic chemicals in household and personal care products (HPCPs) and their discharge into aquatic systems means reliable, robust techniques to monitor environmental concentrations are needed. The passive sampling approach of diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) is developed here and demonstrated to provide in situ quantitative and time-weighted average (TWA) measurement of these chemicals in waters. The novel technique is developed for HPCPs, including preservatives, antioxidants and disinfectants, by evaluating the performance of different binding agents. Ultrasonic extraction of binding gels in acetonitrile gave good and consistent recoveries for all test chemicals. Uptake by DGT with HLB (hydrophilic lipophilic-balanced) as the binding agent was relatively independent of pH (3.5-9.5), ionic strength (0.001-0.1 M) and dissolved organic matter (0-20 mg L-1), making it suitable for applications across a wide range of environments. Deployment time and diffusion layer thickness dependence experiments confirmed DGT accumulated chemicals masses are consistent with theoretical predictions. The technique was further tested and applied in the influent and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant. Results were compared with conventional grab-sampling and 24-h-composited samples from autosamplers. DGT provided TWA concentrations over up to 18 days deployment, with minimal effects from biofouling or the diffusive boundary layer. The field application demonstrated advantages of the DGT technique: it gives in situ analyte preconcentration in a simple matrix, with more quantitative measurement of the HPCP analytes.

AB - Widespread use of organic chemicals in household and personal care products (HPCPs) and their discharge into aquatic systems means reliable, robust techniques to monitor environmental concentrations are needed. The passive sampling approach of diffusive gradients in thin-films (DGT) is developed here and demonstrated to provide in situ quantitative and time-weighted average (TWA) measurement of these chemicals in waters. The novel technique is developed for HPCPs, including preservatives, antioxidants and disinfectants, by evaluating the performance of different binding agents. Ultrasonic extraction of binding gels in acetonitrile gave good and consistent recoveries for all test chemicals. Uptake by DGT with HLB (hydrophilic lipophilic-balanced) as the binding agent was relatively independent of pH (3.5-9.5), ionic strength (0.001-0.1 M) and dissolved organic matter (0-20 mg L-1), making it suitable for applications across a wide range of environments. Deployment time and diffusion layer thickness dependence experiments confirmed DGT accumulated chemicals masses are consistent with theoretical predictions. The technique was further tested and applied in the influent and effluent of a wastewater treatment plant. Results were compared with conventional grab-sampling and 24-h-composited samples from autosamplers. DGT provided TWA concentrations over up to 18 days deployment, with minimal effects from biofouling or the diffusive boundary layer. The field application demonstrated advantages of the DGT technique: it gives in situ analyte preconcentration in a simple matrix, with more quantitative measurement of the HPCP analytes.

KW - CHEMICAL INTEGRATIVE SAMPLERS

KW - ENDOCRINE DISRUPTING COMPOUNDS

KW - DIFFUSIVE GRADIENTS

KW - WASTE-WATER

KW - THIN-FILMS

KW - EMERGING CONTAMINANTS

KW - ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS

KW - AQUATIC ENVIRONMENTS

KW - TREATMENT PLANTS

KW - RIVER WATER

U2 - 10.1021/acs.est.7b03940

DO - 10.1021/acs.est.7b03940

M3 - Journal article

VL - 51

SP - 13274

EP - 13281

JO - Environmental Science and Technology

JF - Environmental Science and Technology

SN - 0013-936X

IS - 22

ER -