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Competitive partitioning and transport of three phthalate esters in a laboratory soil column

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:7014895
To date, research conduct to study competitive partitioning of organic solutes in soil/water systems is insufficient to determine whether the presence of multiple nonionic, hydrophobic solutes will effect the adsorption and transport of individual solutes in soil/water systems. A homologous series of phthalate esters were used in batch equilibrium and soil column breakthrough experiments to examine the difference, if any, between solute adsorption and transport in single versus multicomponent soil/water systems. Based on physical-chemical properties the phthalate esters would be expected to be fairly mobile in soil. Single and multi-component batch equilibrium studies were conducted for the three phthalate esters. The single component batch equilibrium Kp values were in agreement with literature water solubilities and n-octanol water partition coefficients. The multi-component batch experiments indicated that frequently, adsorption was enhanced and the phthalate Kp values were greater in magnitude for the multi-component versus the single component values. Additionally, a laboratory soil column apparatus was designed, constructed and used to study the transport of the phthalates in single and multi-component systems under saturated, moderately unsaturated and unsaturated soil moisture conditions. The phthalate ester breakthrough data was analyzed using the advection-dispersion modeling equation for steady flow.
Research Organization:
Rutgers--the State Univ., New Brunswick, NJ (United States)
OSTI ID:
7014895
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English