Determining buffering capacity of polydimethylsiloxane-based passive dosing for hydrophobic organic compounds in large-volume bioassays

Abstract

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is the most widely used material for passive dosing. However, the ability of PDMS to maintain constant water concentrations of chemicals in large-volume bioassays was insufficiently investigated. In this study, we proposed a kinetic-based method to determine the buffering capacity of PDMS for maintaining constant water concentrations of hydrophobic organic contaminants (HOCs) in large-volume bioassays. A good correlation between log Kow and PDMS-water partitioning coefficients (log KPW) was observed for HOCs with log Kow values ranging from 3.30 to 7.42. For low-molecular-weight HOCs, volatile loss was identified as the primary cause of unstable water concentrations in passive dosing systems. Slow desorption from PDMS resulted in a reduction of water concentrations for high-molecular-weight HOCs. The volume ratio of PDMS to water (RV) was the key factor controlling buffering capacity. As such, buffering capacity was defined as the minimum RV required to maintain 90% of the initial water concentration and was determined to be 0.0076–0.032 for six representative HOCs. Finally, passive dosing with an RV of 0.014 was validated to effectively maintain water concentrations of phenanthrene in 2-L and 96-h toxicity tests with adult mosquitofish. By determining buffering capacity of PDMS, this study recommended specific RV values for cost-efficient implementation of passive dosing approaches in aquatic toxicology, particularly in large-volume bioassays.