Field calibration of polyurethane foam disk passive air samplers for PBDEs

A field study was performed to derive uptake rates of airborne polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) to polyurethane foam (PUF) disk passive air samplers (PAS) and to investigate the influence of deployment location and device design. Data are presented on the gas-particle partitioning of PBDEs, since atmospheric phase distribution was considered to be a variable which could affect sampler performance. Uptake rates for these compounds were similar to those derived previously for other classes of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) (2–6 m³/day), with rates higher for the higher brominated species. Whilst other compound classes (e.g. polychlorinated biphenyls) are predominantly present in the air in the gas phase, heavier PBDEs have an association with particulates in the atmosphere at ambient temperatures. In this study, the PUF disk PAS therefore sampled PBDEs present in the gas phase and on fine aerosols with a similar sampling efficiency to those which are predominantly gas phase compounds. Compounds which are exclusively on particles are sampled less efficiently. A comparison of the three most commonly used PUF deployment configurations, used by different research groups, indicated little difference in uptake rates. The ranges of derived air concentrations for BDE-47, -99, and -183 between three sampler designs were 7.5–9.8, 7.4–12.4, and 4.7–6.6 pg/m³, respectively. This suggests the robustness of this sampler in comparisons between regional and global campaigns where these three designs are employed.