Validation of the Application of a Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) in Non-steady-state Conditions in Aquatic Environments

Abstract

This study validated the chemicals monitoring ability of a polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS) under non-steady-state conditions resulting from natural disasters and environmental accidents in aquatic environments via laboratory experiments. The goal of this work was to contribute toward monitoring the actual state of chemical contamination resulting from emergencies and natural disasters. A chamber replicating the chemical contamination of an aquatic environment established by a chemical exposure assessment model was set up in a clean booth. The concentrations of seven neonicotinoid pesticides were increased to a maximum of 1,000, 100, or 10 µg/L for one day and decreased by 50% per day thereafter. A POCIS was set up with polyethersulfone as the permeation membrane and a resin (Oasis hydrophilic-lipophilic balance) as the receiving phase. Calibration tests of the POCIS were also conducted. The results of this study led to the addition of six neonicotinoid pesticides to the list of POCIS-measurable targets. The results of the chamber experiments showed that a POCIS is a good tool for chemicals monitoring under non-steady-state conditions in an aquatic environment.

Development and Calibration of the Polar Organic Chemical Integrative Sampler (POCIS) for Neonicotinoid Pesticides

“…The experiments were carried out in glass beakers (φ105 × 150 mm), where each beaker contained 1 L of the sample solution that was stirred by cruciform stirring bars (φ40 × 14 mm) at 400 and 1500 rpm (HS-6DN; AS ONE) in an incubator (MIR-554-PJ; Panasonic) at 20°C in the dark. The flow velocities at 400 and 1500 rpm were reported as 1.0 and 18.0 cm/s, respectively, as measured by the alabaster mass loss (Noro et al 2019). The neonicotinoid mixture solution (20 mg/L each) was diluted 1000 times with ultrapure water to prepare a concentrated sample solution.…”

“…In recent years, various passive samplers have been devised for monitoring neonicotinoid pesticides in aquatic environments; these include Chemcatcher (Schäfer et al 2008; Sánchez-Bayo and Hyne 2014), a silicone rubber rod (Martin et al 2018), and the polar organic chemical integrative sampler (POCIS;Ahrens et al 2015;Challis et al 2018;Sultana et al 2018;Noro et al 2019;Xiong et al 2019). The collected amounts for Chemcatcher increased linearly for 20 d (Sánchez-Bayo and Hyne 2014).…”

“…The sampling rate (R s ) of the silicone rubber rod has been relatively low, at 0.04 mL/d at a flow rate of 5 cm/s (Martin et al 2018). The POCIS sampler has been used for field tests (Challis et al 2018;Sultana et al 2018;Xiong et al 2019), even though the linear range was relatively short, 3 to 14 d (Noro et al 2019), or the collected amount increased nonlinearly for 26 d of deployment (Ahrens et al 2015).…”

“…The application of POCIS for neonicotinoid pesticides can be challenging, because neonicotinoid pesticides are highly hydrophilic, with reported log octanol/water partition coefficients (log K OW ) ranging from -0.66 (nitenpyram) to 1.26 (thiacloprid). Indeed, Noro et al (2019) have previously reported that the linear uptake range of the commercial HLBbased POCIS for neonicotinoid pesticides was relatively small (≤1 [dinotefuran] to 14 d), and that significant desorption from the sorbent occurred after a peak event.…”

“…Then static renewal experiments were conducted with a selected adsorbent and 2 membranes to estimate their linear ranges and sampling rates. These values were compared with those of the previously reported commercial HLB-based POCIS (Noro et al 2019). Finally, a field test was conducted using the 2 developed POCIS devices and the commercial POCIS to compare their ability to sample neonicotinoids.…”