Sorption behavior of phenanthrene in Yangtze estuarine sediments: sequential separation

In the present study, phenanthrene was chosen as the probe compound for determining the sorption of PAHs in sediments from Yangtze estuary and nearby coastal area, China. Sorption isotherms were fitted well by the Freundlich and dual models, respectively. Selected sediments were further sequentially separated to remove the carbonate and organic carbon (OC). Calculated OC sorption capacity values based on both H₂O₂ oxidization and 375 °C combustion methods were similar and comparable to the K_oc values estimated by the empirical linear sorption equations. Both sorption models and sorption data using sequentially separated samples achieve the similar conclusions: (1) the partition behavior dominated by OC in sediments with f_oc > 0.01; (2) for sediments with 0.001 < f_oc < 0.01, OC dominated sorption at relatively high aqueous concentration; whereas mineral phase adsorption dominated sorption at lower concentration especially when C_w/S_w was in the range of 0.0001-0.001 in natural aqueous system.