Dermont C Bouchard | PubMed Health

PubMed2003

Cosolvent effects of phenanthrene sorption-desorption on a freshwater sediment.

This study evaluated the effects of the water-miscible cosolvent methanol on the sorption-desorption of phenanthrene by the natural organic matter (NOM) of a freshwater sediment. A biphasic pattern was observed in the relationship between the log of the carbon-normalized sorption distribution coefficient (Koc) and the volumetric fraction of water-miscible cosolvent (fc), in this case methanol, that was accounted for with phenanthrene solubility data. Results also indicated that methanol elicited additional effects on phenanthrene sorption beyond the solution phase effects. The level off, was observed to have a significant effect on sorption-desorption hysteresis, with hysteresis being greater for treatments where phenanthrene and sediment were equilibrated with methanol-phenanthrene solutions but desorbed with aqueous solutions. These results are discussed in light of the deformable pore network of the rubbery/glassy NOM polymer construct.

Fresh Water↗

PubMed2002

Cosolvent effects on sorption isotherm linearity.

Sorption-desorption hysteresis, slow desorption kinetics, and other nonideal phenomena have been attributed to the differing sorptive characteristics of the natural organic polymers associated with soils and sediments. In this study, aqueous and mixed solvent systems were used to investigate the effects of a cosolvent, methanol, on sorption isotherm linearity with natural organic matter (NOM), and to evaluate whether these results support, or weaken, the rubbery/glassy polymer conceptualization of NOM. All of the sorption isotherms displayed some nonlinear character. Our data indicates that all of the phenanthrene and atrazine isotherms were nonlinear up to the highest equilibrium solution concentration to solute solubility in water or cosolvent ratios (Ce/Sw,c) used, approximately 0.018 and 0.070, respectively. Isotherm linearity was also observed to increase with volumetric methanol content (fc). This observation is consistent with the NOM rubbery/glassy polymer conceptualization: the presence of methanol in NOM increased isotherm linearity as do solvents in synthetic polymers, and suggests that methanol is interacting with the NOM, enhancing its homogeneity as a sorptive phase so that sorption is less bimodal as fc increases. When the equilibrium solution concentration was normalized for solute solubility in water or methanol-water solutions, greater relative sorption magnitude was observed for the methanol-water treatments. This observation, in conjunction with the faster sorption kinetics observed in the methanol-water sediment column systems, indicates that the increase in relative sorption magnitude with fc may be attributed to the faster sorption kinetics in the methanol-water systems, and hence, greater relative sorptive uptake for the rubbery polymer fraction of NOM at similar time scales.

Adsorption↗