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Bound PAHs in Sediment and Related Environmental Significance

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Abstract

Extractable polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (EPAHs) and bound PAHs (BPAHs) were measured in a sediment core using conventional Soxhlet extraction and a more astringent extraction method, with the objectives of determining the influence of BPAHs on the historical reconstruction of PAHs and exploring the formation of BPAHs and long-term behaviors of PAHs in sediment. The results indicated that the formation of BPAHs was clearly sediment-depth and molecular-size dependent. BPAHs represents an important portion of PAHs in sediment and cannot be extracted by conventional Soxhlet extraction. This suggests that the previously developed vertical profile of PAHs is not the real chronology of PAHs and the plausible interpretation derived from the sedimentary records of PAHs needs reexamination. Based on the previous findings, a biphase model was proposed and the formation of BPAHs was predicted. Due to the different nature of geosorbents in sediment, redistribution of PAHs among these geosorbents logically leads to the formation of BPAHs and is kinetically favorable for smaller molecular PAHs. This is consistent with the obtained results. Many factors may influence the formation of BPAHs, such as the physicochemical structure of sediment and environmental conditions. There is still a long way to reveal the thermodynamical characteristics in action during the formation of BPAHs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key Research and Development Project by MOST of China (No. 2016YFA0601003), the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (2011ZX07212-007), the Chinese NSF projects (Nos. 41403113 and U1302231), and Science and Technology Project of Guizhou Province ([2015]2001). The authors appreciate greatly the anonymous reviewers and the Associate Editor for their precise comments on the manuscript, which were very helpful to improve the quality of this paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China

    Jian-yang Guo, Jing-an Chen & Jing-fu Wang

  2. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory for Lake Pollution Control, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Feng-chang Wu

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  1. Jian-yang Guo
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  2. Jing-an Chen
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  3. Jing-fu Wang
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  4. Feng-chang Wu
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Correspondence to Jing-an Chen.

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Guo, Jy., Chen, Ja., Wang, Jf. et al. Bound PAHs in Sediment and Related Environmental Significance. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 72, 530–539 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-017-0393-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-017-0393-x

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