Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
4417123 | Chemosphere | 2006 | 7 Pages |
The equilibrium distributions, between water and coal-tar contaminated sediment, of 16 monocyclic and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were measured and evaluated for consistency with a Raoult’s Law-based quantitative relationship. The quantitative relationship calculates the pore water concentration as the product of the aqueous solubility (or for compounds that are solid at room temperature, the aqueous super-cooled liquid solubility) and the mole fraction concentration of the compound within the liquid coal tar. Sediment was collected at five locations at two depths within a 120 m stretch of a river adjacent to a former manufactured gas plant, and all samples contained non-aqueous phase liquid (NAPL) coal tar. Although the amount of coal tar varied between samples by over an order of magnitude, the Raoult’s Law-based NAPL–water partition coefficients for each monocyclic or 2- or 3-ring polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon measured in this study generally varied within a factor of 2 over all sediments.