Use of the diffusion gradient thin film method to measure trace metals in fresh waters at low ionic strength

The diffusion gradients in thin films (DGT) method was investigated and used to measure trace metal concentrations in river water. The principle of DGT is that trace metal ions diffuse through a thin polyacrylamide gel film (the diffusion gel layer) and are subsequently immobilised and concentrated on a layer of Chelex-100 resin embedded in another polyacrylamide gel film (the resin gel layer). These layers are mounted in a plastic holder, which exposes a fixed area of the diffusion gel layer to the water being monitored. Replacement of the normal agarose cross-linked diffusion gel with bisacrylamide cross-linked gel altered the ion uptake properties of DGT. The bisacrylamide cross-linked gel weakly, and with little selectivity, bound metal ions prior to their irreversible binding to Chelex-100. Trace metal ion uptake by these DGT devices was thus dependent on ionic strength and temperature, although the ionic strength effect is relatively small for most natural waters and negligible in sea water. The concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in the Water of Leith, an urban stream in Dunedin, New Zealand, were measured by DGT and the results compared with total dissolved concentrations of these metals measured in conventional (bottle) samples collected in parallel with the DGT monitoring. Greater than 90% of the total dissolved Cd and Zn; 20-40% of the total dissolved Co, Ni, and Pb; and 5% of the total dissolved Cu was available to the DGT method.