Passive sampling and/or extraction techniques in environmental analysis: a review

The current state-of-the-art of passive sampling and/or extraction methods for long-term monitoring of pollutants in different environmental compartments is discussed in this review. Passive dosimeters that have been successfully used to monitor organic and inorganic contaminants in air, water, sediments, and soil are presented. The application of new approaches to the determination of pollutants at the sampling stage is discussed. The main milestones in the development of passive techniques for sampling and/or extraction of analytes, and in biomonitors used in environmental analysis, are summarized in this review. Passive samplers and biomonitors are compared.     

Freon (CHF<Subscript>3</Subscript>)-assisted atomization for the determination of titanium using ultrasonic slurry sampling–graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (USS–GFAAS): a simple and advantageous method for solid samples

A simple and advantageous method for the determination of titanium using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry with slurry sampling has been developed. Titanium is one of the refractory elements that form thermally stable carbides in the graphite tube, which leads to severe memory effects. Trifluoromethane (Freon-23) was applied in the purge gas during the atomization step or alternatively just prior to the atomization to successfully eliminate the problems of carbide formation and increase the lifetime of the furnace tube which could be used for more than 600 heating cycles. A flow rate of 40 mL min^–1 (5% of Freon in argon) was used to obtain symmetrical peaks with no tailing. However, when the gas flow rate was too high (250 mL min^–1) the peak-tailing and memory effects reappeared. Ti was determined in various materials covering a wide range of concentrations, from 2.8 g g^–1 to 12% (m/m) Ti. The accuracy of the method was confirmed by analyzing certified reference materials (CRMs) or by comparing the results with those obtained using inductively coupled plasma–atomic emission spectrometry (ICP–AES) after decomposition of the samples. The materials analyzed were soil, plant, human hair, coal, urban particulate matters, toothpaste, and powdered paint.     

An open optimization problem in statistical quality control

We ask the experts in global optimization if there is an efficient solution to an optimization problem in acceptance sampling: Here, one often has incomplete prior information about the quality of incoming lots. Given a cost model, a decision rule for the inspection of a lot may then be designed that minimizes the maximum loss compatible with the available information. The resulting minimax problem is sometimes hard to solve, as the loss functions may have several local maxima which vary in an unpredictable way with the parameters of the decision rule.     

Headspace-gas chromatography: The influence of sample volume on analytical results

Summary The role of the volume of the sample and the sample vial in equilibrium headspace-gas chromatography is discussed. A new term, thesample phase fraction (_S) is introduced. It is shown that if the value of _S is kept constant, the vial's volume has no influence on the sensitivity of the headspace analysis (which is proportional to the concentration of the analyte in the headspace). In a given headspace sampling system, concentration of the compound of interest in the headspace (c _G ^* ) at equilibrium is related to the value of _S: a higher _S will increase c _G ^* . However, the influence is important only in the case of low distribution coefficients: in the case of higher distribution coefficients this influence is negligible. This conclusion is also true for small changes in the sample volume in duplicate analyses: exact reproducibility of the sample volume is important only in the case of low distribution coefficient values.     

Slurry sampling for determination of lead in marine plankton by electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry

A slurry sampling method has been developed for the determination of Pb in marine plankton by ETAAS using a freshwater plankton certified reference material (CRM 414). Slurries were prepared in 1–3% m/v range with 1% v/v HNO₃ by ultrasonic agitation for 5 min. The effects of several chemical modifiers, including Ir(NO₃)₂, Mg(NO₃)₂, Pd(NO₃)₂, Pd(NO₃)₂ + Mg(NO₃)₂, and Mg(NO₃)₂ + NH₄H₂PO₄, were investigated for the stabilization of Pb during thermal pretreatment. Lead in slurries was effectively stabilized up to 1000 °C with Ir, Pd and Pd + Mg modifiers among which Pd + Mg provided the best results with complete atomization at 1850 °C. Firings in the presence of Ir were, problematic due to ash formation inside the atomizer. Water, dilute HNO₃ and HF were examined as suspension medium. Dilute HNO₃ (1–2% v/v) proved to be advantageous over water as it afforded extraction of Pb from plankton almost quantitatively in 5 min agitation. Hydrofluoric acid was the least suitable medium. Increasing HF concentration up to 5% v/v resulted in inaccuracy and substantial background absorption. Fast-heating furnace method provided comparable accuracy and precision to that of conventional-heating in slurries of CRM 414. Detection limits and characteristic masses were, respectively, 0.49 μg L^− 1 and 32 pg for the conventional method and 0.62 μg L^− 1 and 37 pg for the fast-heating method. However, fast-heating approach suffered from distorted peaks at high temperatures and incomplete pyrolysis of matrix at lower temperatures. Analysis of marine plankton samples for Pb was performed by using the conventional furnace program. The results showed a high correlation with those obtained by solution ICP-MS. Differences were statistically insignificant within 95% confidence interval.     

Designing a contaminated soil sampling strategy for human health risk assessment

Human health risk assessment is a site-based approach used to identify the potential health hazards which are induced by an old site contamination. For a proper evaluation of the daily doses of contaminants to which people will be exposed given the future occupation of the site, both a characterization and a quantification of soil pollution are needed. Such information can be provided by soil sampling. Thus the choice of the location, the number, depth and type of soil samples is very important and ought to follow a well-defined strategy. A review of contaminated site sampling practices in Europe and North America could not identify any completely formalized sampling strategy for human health risk assessment. On the contrary there are several approaches which can be roughly classified into two categories: a systematic sampling scheme over the whole site, on the one hand, and a sampling design driven by an initial knowledge of the contamination sources and fitted to the suspected pollution pattern, on the other. The first approach provides a complete coverage of the site but it may be rather expensive and entail useless sampling. The performance of the second depends on the quality of prior information. Actually both methods can be combined as explained hereafter. In view of the specificity of each site, the requirements of health risk assessment and the time and cost constraints, it seems difficult to work out a typical soil sampling strategy suitable for all sites. However, some recommendations can be made according to the site dimensions, the nature, degree and heterogeneity of contamination, and the (future) use of the site. The scientist should thus rely on a thorough examination of all available information (site history, geology and hydrogeology, soil properties, contaminants behaviour , etc.) to delimit contaminated areas as homogeneous as possible and then distribute the sampling points (e.g.using a sampling grid). They should also take the potential exposure paths into account in order to define the areas and soil strata to be sampled as a priority. Statistical and geostatistical tools can be helpful for formulating a sampling strategy as well as for interpreting the collected data. Received: 7 December 2001 Accepted: 24 February 2002     

Analytical chemistry and the cone penetrometer: In situ chemical characterization of the subsurface

The development of novel microanalytical techniques forin situ chemical characterization of the terrestrial subsurface environment has grown significantly over the last decade, particularly those instruments that are interfaced to the cone penetrometer. Cone penetrometer testing (CPT) has emerged as an effective means to introduce samplers and probes forin situ analysis of contaminants in soil and groundwater matrices. A variety ofin situ chemical samplers for CPT have been developed that can be driven into the subsurface to collect soil gas, groundwater, or soil samples at depth, thus providing a means of determining the vertical and horizontal extent of contamination. Cone penetrometer testing is also being explored as a means to deliverin situ subsurface sensor probes, including probes based on laser-induced fluorescence, Raman, and infrared spectroscopies for organics; on laser-induced breakdown and X-ray fluorescence spectroscopies for heavy metals; and on passive gamma-ray spectroscopy for radionuclides. The range of analytical technologies used in CPT for the determination of organic and inorganic species in the subsurface is described.     

Investigation of a cylindrical chemosorptive denuder for sampling and phase separation of toluene diisocyanate aerosols

A cylindrical chemosorptive denuder in series with a glass fibre filter has been evaluated for sampling toluene diisocyanate (TDI) aerosols. The sampler is designed for measuring personal exposure to diisocyanates. Several denuder coatings and derivatising reagents were investigated. Dimethylpolysiloxane (SE-30) and 5% phenyl dimethylpolysiloxane (SE-54) with either dibutylamine (DBA) or dipentylamine (DPeA) as derivatising reagents yielded the lowest vapour breakthrough (the amount (%) of the vapour that passes through the denuder), close to values predicted by theory. Immobilisation of the SE-30 denuder coating by in-situ cross-linking yielded comparable results. With an SE-30/DBA-coated denuder operating within an airflow range of 100–500 mL min^–1, the phase separation was shown to be consistent with theoretical predictions derived by use of the Gormley–Kennedy equation. This provides a means of calculating the vapour breakthrough and correcting experimentally obtained values with regard to vapour–particulate phase distribution, suggesting that the denuder can provide accurate phase-distribution measurements. The SE-30/DBA denuder can be used over a concentration range spanning nearly six orders of magnitude. Its capacity is sufficient to perform 15-min exposure measurements of a TDI aerosol with air concentrations as high as 1,700 g m^–3, 40 times higher than the Swedish occupational exposure limit (OEL). At the other end of the range, the estimated limit of detection (LOD) was less than 2 ng m^–3 for both the vapour and the aerosol phases when LC–ESI–MS–MS was used for chemical analysis.Electronic Supplementary Material Supplementary material for this article is available at     

SPME-GC-MSD for Determination of Nine Phenyl Compounds in Snow Water in Beijing China

Solid phase microextraction (SPME) then capillary gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection have been used for determination of nine phenyl compounds in snow water in Beijing City. Headspace extraction with a fiber coated with 100 µm PDMS was used to extract the compounds. Extraction and desorption times were optimized at 8 and 2 min, respectively. Relative standard deviation (RSD) of the analytical method was found to be less than 5%. The linear range was wide and limits of detection were less than 5 ng mL⁻¹ for the nine target analytes. Several phenyl compounds at ng mL⁻¹ levels were detected in snow samples in Beijing, indicating the corresponding air pollution.     

Sampling and Analysis of Odorous Compounds in Water Treatment Plants

Abstract

The following analytical method has been used to identify some odorous compounds in the air of the water treatment plant Werdholzli, Zurich: sampling of contaminated air with the help of activated carbon, desorption by the solvents carbon disulphide and methylene chloride, separation of the carbon disulfide extract into a polar and a nonpolar fraction by adsorption column chromatography on silica. Hereafter gaschromatographic analysis of the polar fraction on glass capillary column (Ucon HB 5100); detection and identification were achieved by flame ionisation, thermoionic nitrogen selective detector and computerized mass spectrometry (Finnigan 3200 F, data system 6110).

The results show the presence of sulfur compounds: thiophenes, thiazoles; nitrogen compounds: pyrazines; oxygen compounds: phenols, alcohols and some unsatured hydrocarbons. The malodorous compounds were sulfur and nitrogen compounds in the range of 0.01-0.1 ppm.