Evaluation of Methods To Obtain Geosorbent Fractions Enriched in Carbonaceous Materials That Affect Hydrophobic Organic Chemical Sorption

Abstract

To better understand sorption, separation methods are needed to enrich soils and sediments in one or more types of carbonaceous materials (CM), especially in fine grain materials where physical separation is not possible. We evaluated a series of chemical and thermal treatment methods by applying them to four different CMs prepared in our laboratory: a humic acid (HA), a char, a soot, and a heat-treated soot (HN-soot). Before and after each treatment step, CM properties were evaluated including aqueous phase sorption with trichloroethene (TCE). Results indicate that treatment with hydrofluoric (HF) and hydrochloric acid (HCI) to remove silicate minerals, and with trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) to remove easily hydrolyzable organic matter, has relatively little effect on the humic acid mass (<19% change) and TCE sorption to this material. Subsequent treatment with NaOH to extract fulvic and humic acids results in almost complete removal of the humic acid mass (>92%) and has little to no effect on the masses of the char and two soots (<8% change) and TCE sorption to these materials. Treatment with acid dichromate to remove kerogen and humin also has little effect on masses of the char and soots (<16% change), but TCE sorption to these materials is significantly altered (by >10x in some cases), and there is strong evidence of surface oxidation based on X-ray photoelectron and diffuse reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results. The last step, thermal treatment, which targets char removal, also destroys >96% of the soots pretreated with acid dichromate. However, when thermal treatment is applied to the original soots, <32% of these materials are destroyed. Thermal oxidation also affects sorption to one of the soots (by approximately 2x at low concentration), and surface oxidation is evident. These results suggest that treatment with HCl, HCl/HF, TFA, and NaOH can be applied to soils and sediments to obtain CM enrichment fractions for sorption evaluation, but that acid dichromate and heat treatment may not be appropriate for these purposes.

Mass removal and low-concentration tailing of trichloroethene in freshly-amended, synthetically-aged, and field-contaminated aquifer material

“…Experiments designed to further characterize the organic matter composition of this aquifer material were conducted following procedures similar to those outlined in Jeong and Werth (2005). Specifically, a chemical treatment method was used to obtain fractions of the aquifer material’s organic matter enriched in one or more type of organic carbon.…”

Improved understanding of tributyltin sorption on natural and biochar‐amended sediments

“…Brändli et al [25] observed, however, that BC isolate of a sediment was comparable in TBT affinity to total organic carbon of the sediment, which is not in keeping with earlier studies indicating that BC is usually two to five orders of magnitude more effective than OC for organic compound sorption [20,37]. Such a result was problematic, however, because the BC isolate was obtained by combusting the sediment for 16 h at 3758C in O 2 flow to remove OC, which was expected to have effectively oxidized the surface of BC and hence reduced its sorptivity [38,39]. In addition, aging might also have contributed to the reported low adsorptivity of the BC isolate.…”

Potential contributions of asphalt and coal tar to black carbon quantification in urban dust, soils, and sediments

“…Procedures were the same as those described in Jeong and Werth (2005) and illustrated in Fig. EA1(a).…”

“…Samples evaluated were pavement dust, soils from residential and commercial areas, and lake sediments, all collected from the same small urban watershed, as well as reference asphalt and coal-tar materials. Total BC was quantified using a series of chemical treatments that included Cr 2 O 7 oxidation and CTO-375, which are widely used in different laboratories and have been evaluated with reference materials in our laboratory (Jeong and Werth, 2005). Individual BC species (soot and char/charcoal), asphalt, and coal tar were quantified using petrographic analysis.…”