Desorption and distribution of pentachlorophenol (PCP) on aged black carbon containing sediment

Purpose

There is a strong affinity between organic compounds and black carbon (BC) in sediments, but the release of adsorbed organic compounds from BC may vary with the duration of contaminant–sediment contact (i.e., aging). The objective of this paper was to evaluate the effect of the application of rice straw carbon (RC) on the control of hydrophobic ionizable organic compounds (HIOCs) pollution and investigate whether aging affects the release of adsorbed pentachlorophenol (PCP) in RC-amended sediment.

Materials and methods

Two experiments were conducted in this study: Tenax-mediated desorption kinetics experiment and PCP’s distribution experiment over aging time. The Tenax-mediated desorption kinetics data were fit with a modified two-domain model. PCP’s distribution pools in sediment involves water soluble (F ₁), 48 h desorption (F ₂), 432 h desorption minus 48 h desorption (F ₃), strongly complexed (F ₄), and nonextractable fractions (F ₅).

Results and discussion

A good fit of the desorption kinetics data was obtained with the modified two-domain model, and R ² ranged from 0.979 to 0.999. The presence of RC in the sediment reduced the rapid and slow desorption fractions (F _rap and F _slow) as well as the rapid and slow rates of desorption of PCP (k _rap and k _slow) from the sediment, and the RC also increased the desorption-resistant fraction (F _r ). F _rap and F _slow both increased, while F _r decreased after aging. The PCP content of F ₁, F ₂, and F ₃ increased but decreased in F ₄ and F ₅ with contact time. Furthermore, the segregation of PCP varied less with aging time in sediments with 2.0 % RC than in sediments with 0.5 % RC.

Conclusions

RC played a dominant role in hindering PCP mass transfer and reducing PCP availability in sediments. After the RC-amended sediment was aged for 98 days, the PCP was released more easily and became more readily available, which was attributed primarily to the RC–sediment aging rather than of the PCP–sediment aging. Furthermore, 0.5 % RC is not sufficient to control PCP release from sediments, and 2.0 % RC is needed to fix PCP in sediments over long periods of time.