An in-situ assessment of low-density polyethylene and silicone rubber passive samplers using methods with and without performance reference compounds in the context of investigation of polychlorinated biphenyl sources in rivers.

This study firstly aims to assess the field performances of low density polyethylene (LDPE) and silicone rubber (SR) samplers for the monitoring of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in water regarding the uptake, the sampling rate (R) estimated by using performance reference compounds (PRCs) and the time-weighted average (TWA) concentrations. The second aim is to evaluate the efficiency of these samplers to investigate PCB sources (localization and imputation steps) using methods with and without PRCs to correct for the impact of water velocity on the uptake. Samplers spiked with PRCs were deployed in the outfalls of two PCB sources and at 8 river sites situated upstream and downstream of the outfalls.

Evaluation of performance reference compounds (PRCs) to monitor emerging polar contaminants by polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) in rivers.

In this work, a method combining polar organic chemical integrative samplers (POCIS) and ultraperformance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) was assessed for the determination of two corrosion inhibitors (benzotriazole and methylbenzotriazole), seven pesticides (atrazine, diuron, isoproturon, linuron, metolachlor, penconazole, terbuthylazine), and four pharmaceuticals (carbamazepine, diclofenac, metformin, sulfamethoxazole) in river water. As a first step, two POCIS sorbents, hydrophilic-lipophilic balance (HLB) and Strata X-CW, were compared. The comparison of the uptake profiles of the studied compounds showed that the HLB sorbent provides better uptake (higher sampled amount and better linearity) than Strata X-CW except for the basic compound metformin.