Résumé
Passive samplers (PS) are powerful tools for monitoring micropollutants due to their ability to accumulatethem over weeks or months, providing great time-representativeness. Additionally, they enable to achievelower detection limits compared to traditional methods like grab or composite sampling.However, in wastewater this sampling method faces the constraint of biofouling, which hampers thetransfer of micropollutants from water to the receiving phase. This work aims to investigate an innovativePS, the Prebio cell STEP, that uses the biofilm as a receiving phase, and thus turns biofouling into anadvantage.The operating conditions of the Prebio cell STEP were defined, through the kinetic study of biofilmgrowth, and accumulation of targeted micropollutants over several months in influents and effluents of anurban wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), to determine the optimal deployment duration of this sampler.In parallel, the performances of the Prebio cell STEP were compared with conventional 24h watercomposite sampling regarding the detection of the same micropollutants targeted for the kinetic study, andnumber of compounds detected by suspect and non -target screenings using LC/HRMS analysis.First results showed major differences in appearance of biofilm, and growth kinetics between WWTPinfluents and effluents which could be explained in relation with the various complexity of these watermatrices.Chemical analysis of the biofilm revealed the ability of the biofilm to capture micropollutants present inthe wastewater samples. The kinetic of accumulation of some of these micropollutants in the biofilm willbe presented (metals, alkylphenols, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Moreover, LC/HRMS suspect andnon-target screening highligthed the presence of a variety of micropollutants in the biofilm, includingsome not detected in wastewater composite samples.