TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Heyn, L. A1 - Jung, Christian T1 - Indoor exposure to airborne polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons: A comparison of stir bar sorptive extraction and pump sampling N2 - Stir bar sorptive extraction (SBSE) was compared with standardized pump sampling regarding the prospects to assess airborne levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in indoor environments. A historic railway water tower, which will be preserved as a technical monument for museum purposes, was sampled with both approaches because the built-in insulationmaterial was suspected to release PAHs to the indoor air. The 16 PAHs on the US EPA list were quantified using gas chromatography with mass spectrometric detection in filters from pump sampling after solvent extraction and on SBSE devices after thermal desorption. SBSEwas seen to sample detectable PAHmasseswith excellent repeatability and a congener pattern largely similar to that observed with pump sampling. Congener patterns were however significantly different from that in the PAH source because release from the insulation material is largely triggered by the respective congener vapor pressures. Absolute masses in the ng range sampled by SBSE corresponded to airborne concentrations in the ng L−1 range determined by pump sampling. Principle differences between SBSE and pump sampling as well as prospects of SBSE as cost-effective and versatile complement of pump sampling are discussed. KW - Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons KW - Adsorption KW - Extraction KW - Indoor air PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-537427 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/eng2.12419 VL - 3 IS - 12 SP - 1 EP - 10 PB - John Wiley & Sons Ltd. AN - OPUS4-53742 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Dorgerloh, Ute A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Riedel, Juliane A1 - Hofmann, Andrea T1 - Comparison of gas- and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for trace analysis of anilines in groundwater N2 - Three chromatographic procedures were investigated regarding their potential for the quantification of aniline and 19 of its methylated and chlorinated derivatives in groundwater. These methods were based on liquid-liquid-extraction in combination with gas chromatography and single quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC/MS) according to German standard DIN 38407-16:1999 and its extension using tandem mass spectrometry (GC/MS-MS), both following liquid-liquid extraction, and as third alternative the direct injection of the water sample into a liquid chromatograph coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS-MS). Results were compared using fortified water and real-world contaminated groundwater used in an interlaboratory comparison. It could be shown that GC/MS and GC/MS-MS yielded results deviating less than 10% from each other while all three procedure displayed quantification results deviating less than 15% from the intercomparison reference values in case of each analyte in the concentration range between 1 and 45 µg L-1. Though GC/MS-MS displays a ten-fold higher sensitivity than single quadrupole GC/MS, the precision of both methods in the concentration range was similar. LC/MS-MS has the advantage of no further sample preparation due to the direct injection and leads for methylanilines and meta-, para- substituted chloroanilines to results sufficiently equivalent to the standardised GC/MS method. However, LC/MS-MS is not suitable for ortho-chloroaniline derivates due to significantly lower ion yields than meta- and para-substituted chloroanilines. KW - Interlaboratory comparison KW - Aniline KW - Chloroanilines KW - Methylanilines KW - Groundwater KW - GC/MS KW - GC/MS-MS KW - LC/MS-MS PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-535793 DO - https://doi.org/10.1080/03067319.2021.1987423 VL - 103 IS - 19 SP - 8465 EP - 8477 PB - Taylor & Francis CY - London AN - OPUS4-53579 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Souza Machado, A. A. A1 - Lau, C. W. A1 - Till, J. A1 - Kloas, W. A1 - Lehmann, A. A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Rillig, M. C. T1 - Impacts of microplastics on the soil biophysical environment N2 - Soils are essential components of terrestrial ecosystems that experience strong pollution pressure. Microplastic contamination of soils is being increasingly documented, with potential consequences for soil biodiversity and function. Notwithstanding, data on effects of such contaminants on fundamental properties potentially impacting soil biota are lacking. The present study explores the potential of microplastics to disturb vital relationships between soil and water, as well as its consequences for soil structure and microbial function. During a 5-weeks garden experiment we exposed a loamy sand soil to environmentally relevant nominal concentrations (up to 2%) of four common microplastic types (polyacrylic fibers, polyamide beads, polyester fibers, and polyethylene fragments). Then, we measured bulk density, water holding capacity, hydraulic conductivity, soil aggregation, and microbial activity. Microplastics affected the bulk density, water holding capacity, and the functional relationship between the microbial activity and water stable aggregates. The effects are underestimated if idiosyncrasies of particle type and concentrations are neglected, suggesting that purely qualitative environmental microplastic data might be of limited value for the assessment of effects in soil. If extended to other soils and plastic types, the processes unravelled here suggest that microplastics are relevant long-term anthropogenic stressors and drivers of global change in terrestrial ecosystems. KW - Mikroplastik KW - Einfluß KW - Boden PY - 2018 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.8b02212 SN - 0013-936X SN - 1520-5851 VL - 52 IS - 17 SP - 9656 EP - 9665 PB - American Chemical Society AN - OPUS4-46547 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Sauer, Andreas A1 - Bremser, Wolfram T1 - Fifteen years of proficiency testing of total petrol hydrocarbon determination in soil: a story of success N2 - The total petrol hydrocarbon (TPH) content in soil is determined by gas chromatographic separation and flame ionisation detection according to ISO 16703 in routine laboratories for about 20 years. The development of the interlaboratory variability observed with this analytical procedure over 15 years in a proficiency testing scheme conducted annually with more than 170 participants is evaluated in detail. A significant improvement of the reproducibility standard deviation among participants is observed over the years and attributed to an increasing familiarity with the procedure. Nevertheless, the determination of TPH in the environmentally relevant mass fraction range between 500 mg/kg and 10 000 mg/kg in soils or sediments is far from reaching the reproducibility standard deviations predicted by the Horwitz curve. It is seen that laboratories with sporadic participation tend to report higher bias, while a core group of laboratories participating on a regular basis arrived at reproducibility standard deviations below 20 %. Results from a given laboratory obtained on two different samples tend to be highly correlated in the same PT round indicating a sound repeatability. Expectedly, the within-laboratory correlation between results from consecutive rounds was considerably lower. However, results from consecutive rounds with a temporal distance of 1, 2 or 3 years revealed largely similar correlations which suggests that the within-laboratory reproducibility adjusts to a constant level at least after a period of 1 year. KW - Mineralölkohlenwasserstoffe KW - Boden KW - Ringversuch KW - Gaschromatographie KW - GC-FID KW - Eingnugsprüfung KW - Proficiency Testing PY - 2019 DO - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00769-019-01383-x SN - 0949-1775 SN - 1432-0517 VL - 24 IS - 4 SP - 289 EP - 296 PB - Springer AN - OPUS4-48419 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Scholz, Philipp A1 - Wachtendorf, Volker A1 - Elert, Anna Maria A1 - Falkenhagen, Jana A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Hoffmann, Katrin A1 - Resch-Genger, Ute A1 - Tschiche, Harald A1 - Reinsch, Stefan A1 - Weidner, Steffen ED - Scholz, Philipp T1 - Analytical toolset to characterize polyurethanes after exposure to artificial weathering under systematically varied moisture conditions N2 - Polyether and -ester urethanes (PU) were exposed to artificial weathering at 40 °C and artificial UV radiation in a weathering chamber. In 3 parallel exposures, humidity was varied between dry, humid, and wet conditions. Material alteration was investigated by various analytical techniques like size exclusion chromatography (SEC), liquid chromatography-infrared spectroscopy (LC-FTIR), thermal-desorption gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (TD-GC-MS), fluorescence mapping and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Our results show that depending on the weathering conditions, different degradation effects can be observed. By means of SEC an initial strong decrease of the molar masses and a broadening of the mass distributions was found. After a material dependent time span this was followed by a plateau where molar mass changes were less significant. A minor moisture-dependent degradation effect was only found for polyester PU. Fluorescence measurements on two materials revealed an increase in the luminescence intensity upon weathering process reaching a saturation level after about 500 h. The changes in the optical properties observed after different exposure conditions and times were very similar. The TD-GC-MS data showed the fate of the stabilizers and antioxidant in the course of weathering. LC-FTIR measurements revealed a change in peak intensities and the ratio of urethane and carbonyl bands. KW - Polyurethane KW - Artificial weathering KW - Moisture KW - Crosslinking KW - Degradation PY - 2019 UR - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0142941819303708 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.polymertesting.2019.105996 SN - 0142-9418 VL - 78 SP - 105996, 1 EP - 9 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam AN - OPUS4-48625 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - de Souza Machado, A. A. A1 - Lau, C. W. A1 - Kloas, W. A1 - Bergmann, J. A1 - Bachelier, J. B. A1 - Faltin, E. A1 - Becker, Roland A1 - Görlich, A. S. A1 - Rillig, M. C. T1 - Microplastics can change soil properties and affect plant performance N2 - Microplastics can affect biophysical properties of the soil. However, little is known about the cascade of events in fundamental levels of terrestrial ecosystems, i.e., starting with the changes in soil abiotic properties and propagating across the various components of soil−plant interactions, including soil microbial communities and plant traits. We investigated here the effects of six different microplastics (polyester fibers, polyamide beads, and four fragment types: polyethylene, polyester terephthalate, polypropylene, and polystyrene) on a broad suite of proxies for soil health and performance of spring onion (Allium fistulosum). Significant changes were observed in plant biomass, tissue elemental composition, root traits, and soil microbial activities. These plant and soil responses to microplastic exposure were used to propose a causal model for the mechanism of the effects. Impacts were dependent on particle type, i.e., microplastics with a shape similar to other natural soil particles elicited smaller differences from control. Changes in soil structure and water dynamics may explain the observed results in which polyester fibers and polyamide beads triggered the most pronounced impacts on plant traits and function. The findings reported here imply that the pervasive microplastic contamination in soil may have consequences for plant performance and thus for agroecosystems and terrestrial biodiversity. KW - Mikroplastik KW - Boden KW - Pflanzenwachstum PY - 2019 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-484181 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.9b01339 SN - 0013-936X SN - 1520-5851 VL - 53 IS - 10 SP - 6044 EP - 6052 PB - ACS AN - OPUS4-48418 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -