A new passive sampler as an alternative tool for monitoring of water pollutants

By using a passive sampler for a long sampling period, it is possible to monitor the pollutant concentration in time. In this paper such an approach has been applied to some organic pollutants in water. A new passive sampler has been designed and examined. After exposing the passive sampler to the pollutants for a certain period of time (varied from days to weeks), its solvent filling was subjected to the analysis by liquid chromatography for the content of these pollutants. The sorption of the analytes took place in 50 L-in-volume containers with water of the known concentration of the selected organic pollutants. Investigations were focused on e phenol-type compounds, some pesticides and herbicides. Several parameters were found to strongly influence the performance of the passive method, i.e. the uptake of the pollutants through different membranes, the filling solvents, and the exposure time in various environments.