Commercial screen-printed carbon electrodes for real-time and in situ monitoring of organic UV filters: Application to study their adsorption onto polyethylene microplastics

Abstract

This work demonstrates the use of commercial screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) coupled with differentialpulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DPAdSV) for the in-situ and continuous monitoring, over 24 –48 h, of the concentration of the organic UV filters benzophenone-3 (BP-3) and octocrylene (OC) as they adsorbonto polyethylene (PE) pellets in stirred aqueous solutions. The approach enables a large set of real-time measurementswith minimal disturbance of the solution, providing a valuable complement, with higher temporalresolution, to conventional off-line kinetic studies of UV-filter adsorption onto microplastics, typically performedby HPLC-MS/MS. Moreover, the high reproducibility and durability of SPCE units under stirred conditionshighlight their potential for the continuous monitoring of target pollutants in real environmental matrices,especially when integrated into automated systems involving periodic sensor replacement and recalibration.

This work demonstrates the use of commercial screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) coupled with differential pulse adsorptive stripping voltammetry (DPAdSV) for the in-situ and continuous monitoring, over 24 – 48 h, of the concentration of the organic UV filters benzophenone-3 (BP-3) and octocrylene (OC) as they adsorb onto polyethylene (PE) pellets in stirred aqueous solutions. The approach enables a large set of real-time measurements with minimal disturbance of the solution, providing a valuable complement, with higher temporal resolution, to conventional off-line kinetic studies of UV-filter adsorption onto microplastics, typically performed by HPLC-MS/MS. Moreover, the high reproducibility and durability of SPCE units under stirred conditions highlight their potential for the continuous monitoring of target pollutants in real environmental matrices, especially when integrated into automated systems involving periodic sensor replacement and recalibration.