Experience and lessons learnt in the design, fabrication and deployment of ceramic passive samplers for contaminant monitoring in water

Abstract

The aim of this study is to describe the steps and complications encountered in the design, fabrication and calibration of ceramic passive samplers for the analysis of water contaminants. A ceramic passive samplers consists in a porous ceramic tube where a polymeric sorbent is placed in the inner side to preconcentrate the analytes from water with high enrichment factors. The diffusivity and uptake of contaminants depend on the ceramic porous structure that influences the sampling rate. Although the concept stands up for its simplicity, in real life passive samplers face several problems: fouling, clogging and saturation and then the uptake of contaminants may not be linear during the deployment period. With ceramic passive samplers these problems can be solved by optimizing the ceramic structure and porosity. Over eight year period, we have had a fruitful collaboration with Prof. Victor Orera, aimed to develop customized ceramic membranes to unselectively accumulate the contaminants present in different types of water with the overarching objective to monitor chemical pollution present in the environment. The use of customized ceramic passive samplers (CPS) will permit to identify main compounds in water, their evolution in time, identify the sources of pollution and finally gather enough knowledge and data to effectively propose control and remediation actions. In this study, we describe the steps undertaken in the development of ceramic samplers, their characteristics, the calibration procedure used, their performance and applicability. The work herein presented has been possible due to the brilliant ideas, enthusiasm, perseverance and motivation of Prof. Orera, but also because his joyful and cheerful character made this collaboration really pleasant and valuable.