Using polyacrylate-coated SPME fibers to quantify sorption of polar and ionic organic contaminants to dissolved organic carbon.

A passive sampling method using polyacrylate-coated solid-phase microextraction (SPME) fibers was applied to determine sorption of polar and ionic organic contaminants to dissolved organic carbon (DOC). The tested contaminants included pharmaceuticals, industrial chemicals, hormones, and pesticides and represented neutral, anionic, and cationic structures. Prior to the passive sampler application, sorption of the chemicals to the fibers was characterized. This was needed in order to accurately translate concentrations measured in fibers to freely dissolved aqueous concentrations during the sorption tests with DOC. Sorption isotherms of neutral compounds to the fiber were linear, whereas isotherms of basic chemicals covered a nonlinear and a linear range. Sorption of acidic and basic compounds to the fiber was pH-dependent and was dominated by sorption of the neutral sorbate species. Fiber- and DOC-water partition coefficients of neutral compounds were both linearly related to octanol-water partition coefficients (log Kow). The results of this study show that polyacrylate fibers can be used to quantify sorption to DOC of neutral and ionic contaminants, having multiple functional groups and spanning a wide hydrophobicity range (log Kow = 2.5-7.5).