Development of an on–site detection approach for rapid and highly sensitive determination of persistent organic pollutants in real aquatic environment

Abstract

Analysis of organic pollutants is usually accomplished in centralized laboratories. However, the time-delayed and time-consuming process is insufficient and risky for precisely detection due to the contamination of vials, the losses of analytes during transportation and storage. Herein, a rapid and highly sensitive on-site detection approach was developed without using any vials by coupling an on-site pre-equilibrium solid phase microextraction (SPME) sampling method with a portable gas chromatography mass spectrometer (portable GC-MS), for the determination of three families of persistent organic pollutants (polychlorinated biphenyls, organochlorine pesticides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Based on sampling-rate (SR) calibration method, the concentrations of target analytes in aquatic systems could be easily determined. Limits of detection (LODs) in the low parts-per-tillion levels (≤5.25 ng·L−1) were obtained for most of the investigated analytes with a total analysis time only ∼30 min. The proposed on-site detection approach was then successfully applied in the determination of persistent organic pollutants in real aquatic environment. A comparable result obtained by liquid extraction (LE) equipped with laboratorial GC-MS demonstrated the accuracy of the on-site detection method. In general, this study demonstrated a rapid and highly sensitive on-site approach, avoiding any risks of contamination during sampling and analysis, for determination of POPs as well as the potential applications for other organic pollutants in aquatic phase.