Solid-Phase Extraction, Preservation, Storage, Transport, and Analysis of Trace Contaminants for Water Quality Monitoring of Heavy Metals

Accurate quantification of trace contaminants currently requires collection, preservation, and transportation of large volumes (250-1000 mL) of water to centralized laboratories, which impedes monitoring of trace-level pollutants in many resource-limited environments. To overcome this logistical challenge, we propose a new paradigm for trace contaminant monitoring based on dry preservation: solid-phase extraction, preservation, storage, transport, and analysis of trace contaminants (SEPSTAT). We show that a few grams of low-cost, commercially available cation exchange resin can be repurposed to extract heavy metal cations from water samples even in the presence of background ions, dryly preserve these cations for at least 24 months, and release them by acid elution for accurate quantification. A compact, human-powered device incorporating the sorbent removes spiked contaminants from real water samples in a few minutes. The device can be stored and transported easily and produces a sample suitable for measurement by standard methods, predicting the original sample heavy metal concentration generally within an error of 15%. These results suggest that, by facilitating the collection, storage, handling, and transportation of water samples and by enabling cost-effective use of high-throughput capital intensive instruments, SEPSTAT has the potential to increase the ease and reach of water quality monitoring of trace contaminants.