Abstract
One of the unresolved issues of the European Water Framework Directive is the unavailability of realistic water reference materials for the organic priority pollutants at low nanogram-per-liter concentrations. In the present study, three different types of ready-to-use water test materials were developed for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and tributyltin (TBT) at nanogram-per-liter levels. The first type simulated the dissolved phase in the water and comprised of a solution of humic acids (HA) at 5 mg L−1 dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and a spike of the target compounds. The second type of water sample incorporated the particulate phase in water. To this end, model suspended particulate matter (SPM) with a realistic particle size was produced by jet milling soil and sediments containing known amounts of PAHs, PBDEs and TBT and added as slurry to mineral water. The most complex test materials mimicked “whole water” consequently containing both phases, the model SPM and the HA solution with the target analytes strongly bound to the SPM. In this paper, the development of concepts, processing of the starting materials, characterisation of the HA and model SPMs as well as results for homogeneity and stability testing of the ready-to-use test materials are described in detail. Graphical Vials containing 0.5 g of model SPM, black caps for TBT, silver caps for PAH and red caps for PBDEs, respectively. Graphical Petri dishes with dried model SPMs; to the left 95.7 ± 0.9 mg of SPM containing PBDEs; in the middle 95.8 ± 0.7 mg of SPM containing TBT and to the right 93.7 mg ± 0.7 mg of SPM containing PAHs
Highlights
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC [1] and its daughter directives are some of the most powerful regulatory tools the European Union currently has to protect the quality of the inland aquatic environment
Three types of test materials were produced simulating different water phases as shown in Fig. 1: Independent materials were prepared for each compound group resulting in eight different test materials: three types for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) (HA+spike, suspended particulate matter (SPM), SPM+humic acids (HA)), three types for TBT (HA+spike, SPM, SPM+HA) and two types for polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) (HA+spike, SPM)
In order to keep the spiked compounds in the dissolved phase and make the matrix as realistic as possible, a solution of commercially available HA mimicking natural colloids was added to mineral water
Summary
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC [1] and its daughter directives are some of the most powerful regulatory tools the European Union currently has to protect the quality of the inland aquatic environment They are based on the classification of the quality of all European water bodies and application of corrective measures necessary to reach a “good chemical and ecological status” of these water bodies. Regarding the most toxic chemical compounds, Directive 2008/105/EC lists Environmental Quality Standards (EQS) [2] for 45 priority substances and their maximum levels.
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