Performance reference compounds

Booij, K. Smedes, R van Weerlee, E.M. 2002, Spiking of performance reference compounds in low density polyediylene and silicone passive water samplers. Chemosphere 46 1157—1161. 

Huckins, J.N. Petty, J.D. Lebo, J.A. Almeida, F.V. Booij, K. Alvarez, D.A. Cranor, W.L. Clark, R.C. Mogensen, B.B. 2002b, Development of the permeability/performance reference compound (PRC) approach for in situ calibration of semipermeable membrane devices (SPMDs). Environ. Sci. Technol. 36 85-91. 

In order to assess an analyte s in situ SPMD-water exchange kinetics, performance reference compounds (PRCs as described in Chapter 1) are added to SPMD triolein prior to an exposure (Ellis et al., 1995 Booij et al., 1998 Ockenden et al., 2001 Huckins et al., 2002a). To use this approach, the investigator must be... 

Huckins, J.N. 1998, Effect of deployment devices on performance reference compounds (PRCs) loss. USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center Columbia, MO Unpublished work. 

Soderstrom, H.S. and Bergqvist, P.-A. 2004, Passive air sampling using semipermeable membrane devices at different wind-speeds in situ calibrated by performance reference compounds. Environ. Sci. Tecknol. 38 4828-4834. 

Where (Mchemcateher) is the mass of metal extracted from the receiving phase after a deployment time (t), and (Rs) is the uptake rate for the metal of interest. Like the DGT, these samplers may be adversely affected by biofouling of the membrane surface, and this may limit the length of deployment period that can be used. Unlike for the Chemcatcher for nonpolar organic pollutants, it is not currently possible to use performance reference compounds to correct field uptake rates of the metals version of this sampler for the effects of environmental variables (temperature, turbulence and biofouling). 

A relatively large surface area of nonpolar membrane is required because these chemicals often occur at ultra-trace levels. SPMDs are commercially available and the most widely used type of passive samplers to date. Some advantages for SPMDs over other passive sampler types are the availability of the largest set of calibration data together with an extensive literature and the use of performance reference compounds for in situ calibration is routine. 

The performance of SPMDs, which implies longer exposition and so higher risk of losses of PAHs during sampling, needs to be evaluated too. It results advisable to use reference compounds to validate them, the so-called performance reference compounds (PRCs) for SPMDs. These standards act like RS, but are only referred to the sampling stage. 

---