use of coarse, separable, condensed-phase organic carbon particles to characterize desorption resistance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in contaminated sediments
Physical separations were employed to characterize the source of desorption‐resistant behavior for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in laboratory‐ and field‐contaminated sediments. Size and density separation of laboratory‐contaminated sediments did not effectively separate the amorphous‐phas...
Saved in:
Published in | Environmental toxicology and chemistry Vol. 26; no. 7; pp. 1380 - 1385 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Hoboken
Wiley Periodicals, Inc
01.07.2007
Blackwell Publishing Ltd |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
Cover
Loading…
Summary: | Physical separations were employed to characterize the source of desorption‐resistant behavior for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in laboratory‐ and field‐contaminated sediments. Size and density separation of laboratory‐contaminated sediments did not effectively separate the amorphous‐phase (volatile) and condensed‐phase (nonvolatile) organic carbon as measured by thermal oxidation at 375°C. These separations also did not result in sediment fractions with significantly different desorption characteristics as measured by apparent partition coefficients. Coarse particles from a field‐contaminated sediment from Utica Harbor (UH; Utica, NY, USA), however, could be directly separated into sandy fractions and organic fractions that were composed of woody organic matter, charcoal or charred vegetative matter, and coal‐like and coal‐cinder particles. Chemical analysis showed that coal‐like (glassy, nonporous) and coal‐cinder (porous, sintered) particles exhibited very high PAH concentrations and high apparent partition coefficients. These particles also exhibited significantly higher condensed‐phase (nonvolatile) organic carbon contents as defined by thermal oxidation at 375°C. The apparent partition coefficients of PAHs in the coal‐cinder particles were a good indication of the apparent partition coefficients in the desorption‐resistant fraction of UH sediment, indicating that the coarse particles provided a reasonable characterization of the desorption‐resistance phenomena in these sediments even though the coarse fractions represented less than 25% of the organic carbon in the whole sediment. |
---|---|
Bibliography: | istex:EF1D83F293D41C9C2CE4F55A419AEC4384D79CDD ark:/67375/WNG-L5346T79-V ArticleID:ETC5620260707 ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-1 content type line 23 ObjectType-Article-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 |
ISSN: | 0730-7268 1552-8618 |
DOI: | 10.1897/06-003.1 |