Twenty-Five Years of Research and Monitoring Using PUF Disk Passive Air Samplers

For the past quarter century, polyurethane foam (PUF) disk-based passive air samplers (PASs) have grown as a pivotal tool in research and monitoring of persistent organic pollutants and emerging chemicals in ambient air in both the gas phase and on ambient particulate matter. Their low cost and ease of use have facilitated deployment at the regional and global scales. Modifications to the PUF-PAS have expanded its use for more specific purposes, such as the sorbent-impregnated PUF-PAS (SIP-PAS), which improves sorptive capacity for more volatile chemicals, and the passive dry deposition (PAS-DD) sampler, which captures larger particles and enables estimation of gas and particle deposition. This review summarizes studies characterizing uptake rates and partition coefficients of PUF disks for a wide range of compounds and evaluations of sampler design and performance. It synthesizes applications of PUF-PAS, SIP-PAS, and PAS-DD from 2000 to 2024 across diverse topics: ambient air measurements, indoor air quality, source emissions, health, and, most recently, biodiversity. Approximately 650 publications employing PUF disk-based PASs are summarized herein, demonstrating their increasing use and diversification. On the horizon, we envisage that the PUF-PAS will continue to transform and integrate fields of science and inform policy.