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Updated: May 2, 2026
A Whole Cell Bioreporter Approach to Assess Transport and Bioavailability of Organic Contaminants in Water Unsaturated Systems
Published on: December 24, 2014
Predicting bioavailability of PAHs in field-contaminated soils by passive sampling with triolein embedded cellulose
Yuqiang Tao1, Shuzhen Zhang, Zijian Wang
1State Key Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 2871, Beijing 100085, China.
Abstract:
Triolein embedded cellulose acetate membrane (TECAM) was used for passive sampling of the fraction of naphthalene, phenanthrene, pyrene and benzo[a]pyrene in 18 field-contaminated soils. The sampling process of PAHs by TECAM fitted well with a first-order kinetics model and PAHs reached 95% of equilibrium in TECAM within 20 h. Concentrations of PAHs in TECAM (C(TECAM)) correlated well with the concentrations in soils (r(2)=0.693-0.962, p<0.001). Furthermore, concentrations of PAHs determined in the soil solution were very close to the values estimated by C(TECAM) and the partition coefficient between TECAM and water (K(TECAM-w)). After lipid normalization nearly 1:1 relationships were observed between PAH concentrations in TECAMs and earthworms exposed to the soils (r(2)=0.591-0.824, n=18, p<0.01). These results suggest that TECAM can be a useful tool to predict bioavailability of PAHs in field-contaminated soils.
