Passive sampling // Principle
Pesticides, pharmaceutical residues, hormones and other endocrine disruptors are all micropollutants that inevitably find their way into the aquatic environment via various discharge routes. As the range of compounds found in the environment expands daily, their reliable measurement is a crucial step. What’s more, these analyses are only relevant if they are based on samples that are representative of the contamination in the environment.
At present, spot samples are taken to assess and monitor the quality of water bodies (whether coastal, estuarine, continental, bathing, surface or drinking). This raises the question of the representativeness of the quantities acquired, particularly in terms of temporal representativeness. The concentration of organic compounds can change rapidly over the course of a day. Even if spot sampling is simple to implement, it only provides part of the information on the state of contamination of the environment.
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Contact UsPassive sampling is a sampling technique recently developed in research laboratories. It involves placing a device in the environment to be sampled and leaving it in place for a few days to several weeks. The sampler will accumulate the substances for which it was designed, throughout the period of deployment.
Pollutants are accumulated in proportion to time, so an average concentration can be determined. This feature makes it possible to obtain data that are more representative of the contamination of the water body.
Similarly, as pollutants accumulate in the sampler over the duration of exposure, detection and quantification limits will be lowered. In this way, substances transiting at very low concentrations can be more easily detected ( ≃ng/L).


POCIS (Polac Chemical Integrative Sampler)
POCIS is a passive sampler designed to measure hydrophilic micropollutants, such as many pesticides, pharmaceutical residues and hormones. Sa phase absorbante microporeuse lui permet de piéger et concentrer les molécules durant toute la durée d’exposition (15 jours en moyenne). Examples of molecules: s-metolachlor and its metabolites, diuron, imidacloprid, glyphosate, AMPA, acetaminophen (paracetamol), ketoprofen, caffeine...

DGT (Diffusive Gradient in Thin Film)
DGT® devices are passive samplers designed to be deployed in water, sediment and soil for sampling metals and metalloids. When deployed, their diffusion layer controls the accumulation of target elements, facilitating the determination of concentrations in the medium. In view of the multiple fixing phases available, DGT® can be used to measure a wide range of compounds (aluminum, copper, iron, arsenic, cadmium, selenium, manganese, etc.). In addition, they are specifically designed (1) to sample the labile, i.e. potentially bioavailable, fraction of micropollutants, and (2) to sample specifically a redox form of an element, such as arsenic III and V.

LO-DGT
Initially developed for monitoring metals and metalloids, DGTs have recently been adapted for organic compounds (o-DGTs), including hormones. The monitoring of 13 natural and synthetic hormones (osteogens, progestogens, androgens and prostaglandins) is now offered. Pour plus d'informations, nous contacter.

Chemcatcher
The Chemcatcher is a particularly effective sampler for monitoring and detecting apolar organic compounds such as Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) and PolyChloroByphenyls (PCBs). One of the Chemcatcher's strengths lies in its ability to provide accurate data even for very low concentrations of contaminants.
Deployment matrix :
- Rivers
- WWTP
- Sea
- Lac
- Drinking water
- Waste water