Estimating the relative magnitudes of adsorption to solid-water and air/oil-water interfaces for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances
Open accessAbstract
Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have attracted considerable concern due to their widespread occurrence in the environment and potential human health risks. Given the complexity of PFAS retention in multi-phase systems, it would be useful for characterization and modeling purposes to be able to readily determine the relative significance of the individual retention processes for a given PFAS and set of subsurface conditions. A quantitative-structure/property-relationship (QSPR) analysis was conducted for adsorption of PFAS by soils, sediments, and granular activated carbon (GAC), and integrated with a prior analysis conducted for adsorption to air-water and oil-water interfaces. The results demonstrated that a model employing molar volume provided reasonable predictions of organic-carbon normalized soil/sediment adsorption coefficients (log K oc), GAC-adsorption coefficients (log K d), and air/oil-water interfacial adsorption coefficients (log K i) for PFAS. The relative magnitudes of solid-water and air/oil-water interfacial adsorption were compared as a function of controlling variables. A nomograph was developed that provides a first-order determination of the relative significance of these interfacial adsorption processes in multi-phase porous-media systems.
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Aqueous PFAAs in infiltrating water have been shown to adsorb on pore walls, infiltrate into the soil matrix, or accumulate at air-water interfaces.
“Aqueous PFAAs in infiltrating water have been shown to adsorb on pore walls, infiltrate into the soil matrix, or accumulate at air-water interfaces (Brusseau, 2019;Lyu et al., 2018;Meng et al., 2014).”
From Perfluoroalkyl acids on suspended particles: Significant transport pathways in surface runoff, surface waters, and subsurface soils (2021) · cites this paper as Brusseau, 2019
PFAAs can bind to air-water interfaces, where the hydrophobic tail sticks into the air phase.
“PFAAs can also bind to air-water interfaces (Brusseau, 2019), where the hydrophobic tail sticks into the air phase (Meng et al., 2014).”
From Perfluoroalkyl acids on suspended particles: Significant transport pathways in surface runoff, surface waters, and subsurface soils (2021) · cites this paper as Brusseau, 2019
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- Authors
- Brusseau, M. L.
- Affiliations
- University of Arizona (US)
- Corresponding author
- Brusseau, Mark L.
- ORCID
- Brusseau, Mark L.
- Venue
- Environmental Pollution
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2019-11
- Volume
- 254
- Issue
- Pt B
- Pages
- 113102
- ISSN
- 0269-7491 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC6800169
- OpenAlex
- W2969687150
- Cited by
- 93
- References
- 35
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 17 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 4.46
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Environmental Pollution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances research
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Chemistry › Environmental Chemistry and Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Environmental Engineering › Groundwater flow and contamination studies
- Keywords
- per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, PFAS adsorption, interfacial adsorption, air-water interface, oil-water interface, granular activated carbon, distribution coefficient, molar volume, QSPR, nomogram
- MeSH terms
- Adsorption, Charcoal, Fluorocarbons, Humans, Models, Chemical, Soil, Water, Water Pollutants, Chemical, Porosity, Geologic Sediments
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