[Adsorption and partition of PAHS on particles of the Yellow River]

Experiments were carried out to study the sorption of PAHs Benzo(a)pyrene, chrysene and Benzo(g, h, i)perylene on particles of the Yellow River. The contributions of adsorption and partition to the sorption of PAHs were investigated. Several significant results were obtained from the study: (1) The total sorption capacity increases with the particle content while the sorption capacity of unit weight particle decreases; the isotherms of Benzo(a)pyrene depend on the particle content. (2) Isotherms of Benzo(a) pyrene can be fitted with the Dual Adsorption-Partition model under different particle content; the measured value of the adsorption and partition are in accord with the theoretical value of the Dual Adsorption-Partition model. (3) The adsorption is predominant in the sorption of Benzo(a)pyrene. When the particle contents are 3, 8 and 15 g/L and the liquid equilibrium concentrations are 2.84, 2.35 and 3.4 microg/L, respectively, the contributions of adsorption are 67.8%, 65.6% and 62.69%, respectively. In addition, the contributions of adsorption have a decreasing trend with the increase of the particle content. (4) The sorption capacity of Benzo (a) pyrene being alone are bigger than that with other PAHs chrysene and Benzo(g, h, i)perylene coexisting in the water system, this also proves that the adsorption is predominant in the sorption of PAHs.