Enhancement of water solubility and mobility of phenanthrene by natural soil nanoparticles

Nanoparticles (NPs) in soils may participate in essential ecological services, since they have special characteristics arising from their nanoscale sizes and large surface areas. We did aqueous solubility enhancement experiments to derive the partition coefficients of phenanthrene between water and six natural soil NPs. The coefficients were approximately exponentially reduced with increasing concentrations of NPs, low concentrations of NPs (50 mg L−1) had significant high adsorption capacities for phenanthrene. Further experiments based on dynamic light scattering technique and column tests were performed to examine the aggregation and mobility of soil NPs and how they influence phenanthrene mobility in porous media. NPs have high and reversible adsorption on surfaces of porous media with aggregation taking place during their transport and they largely control the mobility of phenanthrene in sand columns.

► Low concentrations of nanoparticles at 0.05 g L−1 had significant high adsorption capacity of phenanthrene.
► Characterize the aggregation and mobility of soil nanoparticles in saturated sand columns.
► The mobility of phenanthrene in porous media facilitated by soil nanoparticles.