Gas-particle partitioning of polychlorinated naphthalenes and non- and mono-ortho-substituted polychlorinated biphenyls in arctic air

Gas-particle partitioning relationships were developed for partitioning of polychlorinated naphthalenes (PCNs) and non- and mono-ortho PCBs in arctic air by regressing observed gas-particle partition coefficients, KP, at Alert and Dunai in the high Arctic with temperature-adjusted experimental vapor pressures (pL°) and octanol-air partition coefficients (KOA). Slopes were near −0.5 and 0.5 for log pL° and log KOA, respectively, at both sites, indicating that aerosol characteristics and partitioning processes were similar at the two sites. The KOA absorption model provided an adequate estimate of the percentage of PCNs and non-/mono-ortho PCBs associated with particulate matter, based on fraction of organic matter (fOM) ranging from 0.074 to 0.12, compared to the Junge-Pankow adsorption model, which slightly over-estimated the distribution on particles. There were no indications that partitioning to soot carbon influences the observed gas-particle distribution for PCNs and non-/mono-ortho PCBs in arctic air as has been observed for PAHs in recent studies at temperate locations.