Possibilities of poly(methyl methacrylate) as a passive sampler for determination of bioavailable concentrations in seawater

Abstract

Solvent-treated poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) was recently introduced as a passive sampler for determining bioavailable concentrations, i.e., freely dissolved concentrations. However, the much knowledge required to obtain accurate bioavailable concentrations using the thus treated PMMA, applied in a marine environment, is still lacking. In this study, uptake experiments with PMMA after solvent treatmentwere conducted to investigate its uptake capacity and the effects of water temperature and salinity on the PMMA-water partition coefficient (KPMMA-W) for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Thus, PMMA passive samplers preloaded with performance reference compounds were exposed to seawater to first estimate the deployment time and then to confirm if the PMMA could give the residual concentrations of PAH in mussel. The less hydrophobic PAHs (log octanol-water partition coefficient< 5.5) had higher uptake capacity of PMMA-uptakewas increased by a factor of up to 10. Whereas for these PAHs the KPMMA-W values and seawater temperature showed a parabolic relationship, the effect of salinity on KPMMA-W was not observed. The less hydrophobic PAH concentrations in seawater can be measured using the PMMA passive sampler over a period of about three weeks. For the PAHs detected in both PMMA and mussel, the PAH concentrations in mussel predicted from PMMA were found to bewithin one order of magnitude of themeasured concentrations. This, therefore, suggests that solvent-treated PMMA could be used as a passive sampler to provide information on bioavailable concentrations for less hydrophobic PAHs. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.