Although gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) analysis is typically used as an analytical method to study amounts of known variables or isolate few unknown compounds, it is also a powerful tool for determining the identity and relative concentrations of many unknowns when a sample is taken from a complex environment. Passive samplers were used to collect compounds from the chemically diverse environments including wastewater from Chicago wastewater treatment plants, soil and seawater contaminated with explosives, and sediment from a Minnesotan lake. Unlike traditional grab sampling that only show the chemical composition of the environment at that time, passive samplers offer a longer span of time to average chemical conditions and avoid uncharacteristic spikes or collect unusual compounds. These samplers were composed of swellable organosilica sorbents encased in stainless steel mesh and are available as Sentinel™ passive samplers. The organosilica sorbent has high affinity for a wide range of semipolar and nonpolar chemicals of interest and can expand many times its size, resulting in a high capture capacity and allowing for integrative sampling over long periods of time.<br/>After being deployed in both bench scale experiments and the environment, the passive samplers were extracted with acetonitrile and analyzed with GC-MS to detect nonylphenols in lake water sediment, TNT and RDX in soil and seawater, and pharmaceuticals in wastewater. Results show that a wide range of compounds are extracted leading to concentration sufficient for compound identification. Passive samplers show especially high affinity for mid polarity compounds with logk<sub>ow</sub> better than 1.5-4.<br/>

Evaluation of swellable organically modified silica passive samplers in complex matrices

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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