The application of high-performance liquid chromatography humic acid columns in determination of Koc of polycyclic aromatic compounds

✍ Scribed by Kristoffer E. N. Jonassen; Torben Nielsen; Poul Erik Hansen

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2003
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 81 KB
• Volume: 22
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0730-7268
• DOI: 10.1002/etc.5620220410

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

An improvement of a method for determination of the distribution coefficient for polycyclic aromatic compounds (PAC) between organic carbon and water (K~oc~) by high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is presented in this paper. By use of silica‐based HPLC columns with chemically immobilized humic acid (Aldrich, Zigma‐Aldrich, Taufkirchen, Germany), the retention of PAC to humic acid can be measured, and the results can, when they are compared to those from a blank column, be used to a direct determination of K~oc~. These values agree quite well with literature K~oc~ values for two‐ to four‐ringed PAC. Our work has shown that it is possible to use this method to investigate how environmental parameters like electrolyte concentration, pH, and temperature affect the sorption of PAC to humic acid. Thermodynamic parameters can be estimated from variable temperature experiments. The advantage of the method is its cost and manpower effectiveness.