DGT measurement in low flow conditions: diffusive boundary layer and lability considerations

Abstract

Recent papers have alerted the scientific community that a diffusive boundary layer (DBL) forming in front of diffusive gradients in thin film (DGT) devices when they are immersed in water might have a significant impact on the results and have suggested a method to assess the DBL. This paper aims at evaluating to what extent the DBL impacts the results of metal measurement in water by DGT and providing new information on the dissociation kinetics of metal complexes in wastewater by using DBL calculation. A careful study of the influence of the water velocity on the measurement with DGTs equipped with restricted gels is presented. Deployments took place in the laboratory with a range of stirring speeds (0–400 rpm) and in a canal receiving treated wastewater with increasing controlled water velocity (0.07–3 cm s⁻¹). Even under extreme low flow conditions, the error made in using the equation that does not take into account that the DBL was lower than the analytical error. Nevertheless, the DBL is the seat of dissociation of complexes and increases the lability window beyond the steric constraints of the hydrogel. The capacity of restricted gels to only sample inorganic species under these conditions is questioned. This study also is an opportunity to provide information on metal–ligand interactions in wastewater by creating the kinetic signature of the wastewater. Unlike previous studies which used different types of water, Pb was the more limited metal and interacted strongly with the ligands.