Speaker
Description
Rapid urban, industrial, and agricultural development in recent decades has increased water pollution, releasing a wide variety of contaminants into aquatic systems, with hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) being of particular concern. Their lipophilic nature may lead to bioaccumulation and biomagnification and can cause immune, reproductive, and endocrine disruption, posing risks to ecosystems and human health.
Assessing the bioavailable fraction of these pollutants is crucial for understanding their environmental fate and health implications. Conventional grab water sampling rarely reflects these fractions. Passive equilibrium sampling with silicone polymers offers an alternative to directly capture the bioavailable concentration, mimicking the chemical uptake in biota. However, reaching thermodynamic equilibrium with the sampler can take months to years for some compounds, due to slow mass transfer and resistance at the water–polymer interface. This research aimed to overcome these challenges and take a step forward in equilibrium sampling of HOCs in water using silicone chemometers, by optimizing sampler design. Glass jars, coated with silicone polymer layers of three different thicknesses, were deployed under pump-generated turbulent flow to accelerate the uptake by reducing the water boundary layer thickness. The newly developed silicone-coated jar samplers reached rapid equilibrium within
10 days for compounds with log Kow values up to 6, demonstrating their potential for short-term field deployment and broad applicability across HOCs classes including polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, pesticides and personal care products.
Keywords: Silicone-based Chemometer, Passive Sampling, Hydrophobic Organic Compounds, Water Analysis
