Sediment–water distribution of perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) in Yangtze River Estuary

Abstract

PFOS may be largely scavenged to the sediment in estuaries due to the dramatic change in salinity during its transport from lands to oceans. a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c tAnalysis of Perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) distribution in water and sediment in Yangtze River Estuary showed that the estuary was a sink for PFOS. Salinity was an important parameter in controlling the sediment-water interactions and the fate or transport of PFOS in the aquatic environment. As the salinity (S&) increased from 0.18 to 3.31, the distribution coefficient (K d ) between sediment and water linearly increased from 0.76 to 4.70 L g À1 . The study suggests that PFOS may be carried with the river water and transported for long distances before it reaches to the sea and largely scavenged to the sediment in the estuaries due to the dramatic change in salinity.

Perfluoroalkyl substances and organochlorine pesticides in sediments from Huaihe watershed in China

“…Concentrations of PFOA and PFOS in sediments from Anhui reach of the Huaihe River were the least, when comparing with other studied watersheds in China, including the rivers of Pearl (PFOA, 0.09-0.29 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −3.1 ng/g dw), Huangpu (PFOA, 0.2-0.64 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −0.46 ng/g dw), Liao (PFOA, n.d. −27.9 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −6.6 ng/g dw), and Haihe (PFOA, 0.9-3.7 ng/g dw; PFOS, 1.8-7.3 ng/g dw), and the Yangtze Estuary (PFOS, 72.9-536.7 ng/g dw), north Bohai Sea (PFOA, n.d. −0.54 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −1.97 ng/g dw) (Bao et al, 2010;Pan and You, 2010;Li et al, 2011;Wang et al, 2011;Yang et al, 2011). Concentrations of PFOA and PFOS were also lesser than those from other countries, including several rivers in Japan (PFOA, n.d. −3.9 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −11 ng/g dw), west coast of Korea (PFOA and PFOS, <2.0 ng/g dw), San Francisco Bay, USA (PFOA, n.d. −0.63 ng/g dw; PFOS, n.d. −3.07 ng/g dw) (Higgins et al, 2005;Senthilkumar et al, 2007;Naile et al, 2010).…”

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in the lower atmosphere and surface waters of the Chinese Bohai Sea, Yellow Sea, and Yangtze River estuary

“…For PFSAs, the Yangtze River estuary was the major source. Pan (2010) reported PFOS concentrations of up to 703.3 ng/L for the Yangtze River Delta. S.W.…”

Effect of temperature on the sorption and desorption of perfluorooctane sulfonate on humic acid

“…PFOS (C 8 F 17 SO 3 − ) is an anionic organic compound comprised with a fully fluorinated carbon chain length of C8 and a sulfonyl group, which is expected to behave differently from traditional hydrophobic contaminants since it has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic functionalities (UK Environment Agency, 2004). In previous studies, much attention had been paid to the effects of sediment composition and cosolvent on the sorption of PFOS (Higgins and Luthy, 2006;Johnson et al, 2007;Pan and You, 2010;You et al, 2010). Little knowledge is available about the effect of temperature on the sorption and desorption behaviors of PFOS, although temperature is an important parameter influencing the equilibrium and rate of sorption and desorption (ten Hulscher and Cornelissen, 1996).…”