Interaction of 15 priority substances for water monitoring at ng L−1 levels with glass, aluminium and fluorinated polyethylene bottles for the containment of water reference materials
Interaction of 15 priority substances for water monitoring at ng L21 levels with glass, aluminium and fluorinated polyethylene bottles for the containment of water reference materials
Saioa Elordui-Zapatarietxe 0 1 2 3
Ina Fettig 0 1 2 3
Janine Richter 0 1 2 3
Rosemarie Philipp 0 1 2 3
Fanny Gantois 0 1 2 3
Be´atrice Lale`re 0 1 2 3
Claudia Swart 0 1 2 3
Ha˚ kan Emteborg 0 1 2 3
0 Laboratoire National de Me ́trologie et d'Essais (LNE) , 5, Avenue Albert Bartholome ́, 75015 Paris , France
1 European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Institute for Reference Materials and Measurements (IRMM) , Retieseweg 111, 2440 Geel , Belgium
2 & Ha ̊kan Emteborg
3 Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) , Bundesallee 100, 38116 Braunschweig , Germany
Certified water reference materials are currently not available for most of the hydrophobic organic pollutants listed in the EU Water Framework Directive. To find the most suitable container type for subsequent reference material productions, feasibility studies for the preparation of waters with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and tributyltin (TBT) close to environmental quality standards in water have been performed. Due to the hydrophobic nature of these compounds and their tendency to adsorb onto container walls, an adequate selection of the most appropriate material for containment, storage and transport of water reference materials is crucial. Three different materials (aluminium, amber glass and fluorinated polyethylene, FPE) and three volumes (500/600 mL, 1000/1200 mL and 2000/3000 mL, depending on commercial availability) were tested at ng L-1 level of the target compounds. FPE shows by far the highest loss of analytes due to adsorption onto the container walls for all compounds studied. Aluminium and glass are equally suited for PAHs and PBDEs, but aluminium is unsuitable as container material for TBT due to acid cleaning requirements. The volume of the containers had no dramatic effect on the adsorption behaviour of target compounds for the different volumes tested.
Water Framework Directive; Reference materials; Hydrophobic organic pollutants; Bottles; Adsorption; Glass; Aluminium; Fluorinated polyethylene
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Bundesanstalt fu¨r Materialforschung und –pru¨fung (BAM),
Richard-Willsta¨tter-Str. 11, 12489 Berlin, Germany
The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) 2000/60/EC
[1] establishes the legal framework for protection of water
bodies in Europe. It aims to reach a good ecological and
chemical status by the end of 2015 ensuring the protection
of water needs for society and ecosystems. In order to
assess the chemical status of the waters, the amending
Directive 2013/39/EC on environmental quality standards
(EQS) [2] lays down concentration limits for 45 priority
substances that have to be regularly monitored by the EU
Member States. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs),
polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) and tributyltin
(TBT) are among the priority substances due to their
toxicity and widespread environmental occurrence.
To ensure the quality of the measurement data, Directive
2009/90/EC on technical specifications for chemical
analysis and monitoring of water status [3] requests that
laboratories should use (certified) reference materials, if
available, to assess that the results are traceable, accurate,
reliable and comparable. Unfortunately, such reference
materials are not available for PAHs, PBDEs and TBT in
natural waters [4].
A very demanding requirement of the WFD for
analytical laboratories is the measurements of the whole,
nonfiltered water [5]. Even though analytical methods for
many of the priority pollutants exist, most of them are not
validated for the presence of high amounts of suspended
particulate matter (SPM) [6]. This can lead to an important
underestimation of concentrations in the whole water
because the analytes are tenaciously bound to the particles
[7].
The need for matrix certified reference materials
(CRMs) certified for hydrophobic organic pollutants in
whole water has frequently been highlighted as a serious
drawback to fulfil the stipulated monitoring needs since the
lack of these hinders the validation of analytical methods
and the comparability of results [8, 9]. There have already
been several attempts to prepare different water materials
for interlaboratory comparisons [9–12]. The most common
approaches imply a ‘‘reconstitution step’’ in the laboratory
prior to analysis, i.e. the addition of a solution or a solid
containing the compounds of interest to a specified water
volume [4, 9]. Ready-to-use matrix materials are closer to
real samples but display homogeneity and stability
problems compared to the reconstitution approaches. Such
challenges have to be resolved in order to be able to
produce water matrix CRMs for hydrophobic organic
compounds in the future.
The collaborative project ‘‘Traceable Measurements for
Monitoring Critical Pollutants under the European Wate (...truncated)