The Chemcatcher passive sampler, which uses Empore™ disks as sampling phase, is frequently used to monitor polar organic chemicals in river water and effluents. Uptake kinetics need to be quantified to calculate time-weighted average concentrations from Chemcatcher field deployments. Information on release kinetics is needed if performance reference compounds (PRCs) are used to quantify the influence of environmental conditions on the uptake. In a series of uptake and elimination experiments, we used Empore™ SDB disks (poly(styrenedivinylbenzene) copolymer modified with sulfonic acid groups) as a sampling phase and 22 compounds with a logK ow (octanol-water partitioning coefficient) range from −2.6 to 3.8. Uptake experiments were conducted in river water or tap water and lasted up to 25days. Only 1 of 22 compounds (sulfamethoxazole) approached equilibrium in the uptake trials. Other compounds showed continuing non-linear uptake, even after 25days. All compounds could be released from SDB disks, and desorption was proportionally higher in disks loaded for shorter periods. Desorption showed two-phase characteristics, and desorption was proportionally higher for passively sorbed compounds compared to actively loaded compounds (active loading was performed by pulling spiked river water over SDB disks using vacuum). We hypothesise that the two-phase kinetics and better retention of actively loaded compounds—and compounds loaded for a longer period—may be caused by slow diffusion of chemicals within the polymer. As sorption and desorption did not show isotropic kinetics, it is not possible to develop robust PRCs for adsorbent material like SDB disk
