Polyethylene–Water Partitioning Coefficients for Parent- and Alkylated-Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons and Polychlorinated Biphenyls

Abstract

We report polyethylene (PE)-water partitioning coefficients (K(PE)) for 17 parent-polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), 22 alkylated-PAHs, 3 perdeuterated parent-PAHs, and 100 polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners or coeluting congener groups. The K(PE) values for compounds in the same homologue group are within 0.2 log units for alkylated-PAHs but span up to an order of magnitude for PCBs, due to the greater contribution of the position of the substituents (i.e., chlorines for PCBs and alkyl groups for alkylated-PAHs) to the molecular structure. The K(PE) values in deionized water for parent- and alkylated-PAHs show a good correlation with a regression model employing the number of aromatic carbons (C(AR)) and aliphatic carbons (C(AL)) in each compound: log K(PE) = -0.241 + 0.313 C(AR) + 0.461 C(AL). The regression model is useful for the assessment of freely dissolved aqueous concentrations of alkylated-PAHs, which comprise a significant fraction of the total in petroleum-derived PAHs and in some pyrogenic PAH mixtures. For PCBs, experimentally determined octanol-water partitioning coefficients are the best predictor of the K(PE) values among the molecular parameters studied. The effect of salinity up to 20 or 30 parts per thousand is found to be relatively insignificant on K(PE) values for PAHs or PCBs, respectively.

Magnetite impregnation effects on the sorbent properties of activated carbons and biochars

“…After mixing, the PE samplers were collected, wiped cleaned with lab tissue and extracted twice for 24 h with 10 mL hexane: acetone 80:20 v:v solvent. According to a previous study, more than 99.9% of phenanthrene can be recovered by this extraction procedure (Choi et al, 2013). The extractions were concentrated to approximately 1 mL under a gentle stream of ultra-pure grade nitrogen after a fixed amount of deuterated phenanthrene had been added as recovery standard.…”

Quantifying the Effects of Temperature and Salinity on Partitioning of Hydrophobic Organic Chemicals to Silicone Rubber Passive Samplers

“…14 In contrast, substantial effects in agreement with theory have been observed for partitioning of low-molecular-weight PAHs and PCBs to PE 2,13 and PAH partitioning to PDMS, 15 whereas effects contrary to theoretical expectations (i.e., reversed effects) have been described for sorption of methyl-triclosan, n-nonylphenol, and some high-molecular-weight PAHs and PCBs to PE. 13,14 Similarly, no (significant) effect of salinity on PE-water partitioning of methyl-triclosan, n-nonylphenol, PAHs, and PCBs has been reported, 10,14,17 while a significant effect was found for the partitioning of PAHs to PE and PDMS. 2,16 In summary, there is no scientific consensus on the existence, extent, and generality of the effects of temperature and salinity on the partitioning of HOCs between water and different polymers.…”

Improvements in pollutant monitoring: Optimizing silicone for co-deployment with polyethylene passive sampling devices

“…In addition to compound selectivity, considerations for using PSDs derive from previous development of uptake kinetics and published laboratory methods (Vrana et al, 2005; Rusina et al, 2007). One of the most commonly used passive samplers is low-density polyethylene (LDPE) due to the low cost of the material, hydrophobic properties for targeting many persistent organic pollutants (POPs), and available partitioning and sampling rate estimates (Booij et al, 2002; Anderson et al, 2008; Choi et al, 2013). …”