Abstract
Black carbon is the carbonaceous product of pyrolysis or incomplete combustion of biomass or fossil fuels. Due to its widespread occurrence in atmospheric aerosols, soils and sediments, and its intrinsic strength as an adsorbent, black carbon potentially plays an important role in the partitioning of organic pollutants from water and air to natural solids, especially at low pollutant concentration. The adsorptive strength of black carbon depends greatly on pyrolysis time, temperature and other formation conditions, as well as subsequent weathering in the environment. The predominant property of black carbon governing its adsorptive strength is its small-pore porosity. The filling of micropores and mesopores of molecular dimensions eliminates the need for the cavity penalty that otherwise accompanies partitioning of molecules into bulk nonporous phases such as organic liquids, polymers and natural organic matter to accommodate incoming molecules. However, the filling of these small pores exhibits a steric effect due to size exclusion at pore throats. The polyaromatic (graphite-like) surface of black carbon serves as a strong π-electron donor in the formation of π-π electron donor-acceptor complexes with strong π-deficient aromatic systems, for example, polynitroaromatics and charged aromatic amines. Polar functional groups on the rims of polyaromatic sheets attract water clusters that crowd out adsorbates, regardless of polarity. Nevertheless, compounds such as phenols, carboxylic acids and others that are capable of forming especially strong hydrogen bonds with carboxyl or phenoxyl groups on the surface may interact strongly. In the environment, the adsorptive strength of black carbon becomes quickly attenuated by fouling with humic substances, which block pores and compete for adsorption sites. Quantifying the contribution of native black carbon to retention of a contaminant in a given natural sample is a challenge due to the lack of reliable methods for determining black carbon content in geosolids, the difficulty of separating black carbon particles from the sample, the absence in most cases of a basis for choosing an appropriate reference standard, and a poor quantitative understanding of the weathering process. Adding to the challenge is the strong hysteresis that is often seen to accompany adsorption to black carbon materials, but that is unpredictable and poorly understood mechanistically.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abraham MH, Chadha HS, Whiting GS, Mitchell RC (1994) Hydrogen bonding. 32. An analysis of water-octanol and water-alkane partitioning and the delta log P parameter of Seiler. J Pharm Sci 83:1085–1100
Akhter M, Chughtai A, Smith D (1985a) The structure of hexane soot I: spectroscopic studies. Appl Spectrosc 39:143–153
Akhter MS, Chughtai AR, Smith DM (1985b) The structure of hexane soot II: extraction studies. Appl Spectrosc 39(1):154–167
Allen-King RM, Grathwohl P, Ball WP (2002) New modeling paradigms for the sorption of hydrophobic organic chemicals to heterogeneous carbonaceous matter in soils, sediments, and rocks. Adv Water Resour 25:985–1016
Antal MJ Jr, Grønli M (2003) The art, science, and technology of charcoal production. Ind Eng Chem Res 42:1619–1640
Bailey A, Cadenhead DA, Davies DH, Everett DH, Miles AJ (1971) Low pressure hysteresis in the adsorption of organic vapours by porous carbons. Trans Faraday Soc 67:231–243
Barring H, Bucheli TD, Broman D, Gustafsson O (2002) Soot-water distribution coefficients for polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins, polychlorinated dibenzofurans and polybrominated diphenylethers determined with the soot cosolvency-column method. Chemosphere 49:515–523
Boehm HP (1964) Some aspects of the surface-chemistry of carbon-blacks and other carbons. Carbon 32:759–769
Bourke J, Manley-Harris M, Fushimi C, Dowaki K, Nunoura T, Antal MJ (2007) Do all carbonized charcoals have the same chemical structure? 2. A model of the chemical structure of carbonized charcoal. Ind Eng Chem Res 46:5954–5967
Braida W, Pignatello JJ, Lu Y, Ravikovitch PI, Neimark AV, Xing B (2003) Sorption hysteresis of benzene in charcoal particles. Environ Sci Technol 37:409–417
Brewer CE, Schmidt-Rohr K, Satrio JA, Brown RD (2009) Characterization of biochar from fast pyrolysis and gasification systems. Environ Prog Sustain Energy 28:386–396
Bucheli TD, Gustafsson O (2001) Ubiquitous observations of enhanced solid affinities for aromatic organochlorines in field situations: are in situ dissolved exposures overestimated by existing partitioning models? Environ Toxicol Chem 20:1450–1456
Chandler D (2005) Interfaces and the driving force of hydrophobic assembly. Nature 437:640–647
Chen Y et al (2005) Electron microscopy investigation of carbonaceous particulate matter generated by combustion of fossil fuels. Energy Fuels 19:1644–1651
Chen J, Zhu D, Sun C (2007a) Effect of heavy metals on the sorption of hydrophobic organic compounds to wood charcoal. Environ Sci Technol 41:2536–2541
Chen W, Duan L, Zhu DQ (2007b) Adsorption of polar and nonpolar organic chemicals to carbon nanotubes. Environ Sci Technol 41:8295–8300
Chen G, Shan X, Wang Y, Wen B, Pei Z, Xie Y, Liu T, Pignatello JJ (2009) Adsorption of 2,4,6-trichlorophenol by multi-walled carbon nanotubes as affected by Cu(II). Water Res 43:2409–2418
Cho Y-M, Ghosh U, Kennedy AJ, Grossman A, Ray G, Tomaszewski JE, Smithenry DW, Bridges TS, Luthy RG (2009) Field application of activated carbon amendment for in-situ stabilization of polychlorinated biphenyls in marine sediment. Environ Sci Technol 43:3815–3823
Cornelissen G, Gustafsson O (2004) Sorption of phenanthrene to environmental black carbon in sediment with and without organic matter and native sorbates. Environ Sci Technol 38:148–155
Cornelissen G, Gustafsson O (2006) Effects of added PAHs and precipitated humic acid coatings on phenanthrene sorption to environmental black carbon. Environ Pollut 141:526–531
Cornelissen G, Elmquist M, Groth I, Gustafson Ö (2004) Effect of sorbate planarity on environmental black carbon sorption. Environ Sci Technol 38:3574–3580
Coughlin RW, Ezra FS (1968) Role of surface acidity in the adsorption of organic pollutants on the surface of carbon. Environ Sci Technol 2:291–297
Dachs J, Eisenreich SJ (2000) Adsorption onto aerosol soot carbon dominates gas-particle partitioning of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Environ Sci Technol 34:3690–3697
Elmer W, Pignatello JJ (2011) Effect of biochar amendments on mycorrhizal associations and fusarium crown and root rot of asparagus in replant soils. Plant Dis 95:960–966
Endo S, Grathwohl P, Schmidt TC (2008) Absorption or adsorption? Insights from molecular probes n-alkanes and cycloalkanes into modes of sorption by environmental solid matrices. Environ Sci Technol 42:3989–3995
Franz M, Arafat HA, Pinto NG (2000) Effect of chemical surface heterogeneity on the adsorption mechanism of dissolved aromatics on activated carbon. Carbon 38:1807–1819
Gilli P, Pretto L, Bertolasi V, Gilli G (2009) Predicting hydrogen-bond strengths from acid-base molecular properties. The pK(a) slide rule: toward the solution of a long-lasting problem. Acc Chem Res 42:33–44
Goldberg ED (1985) Black carbon in the environment. Wiley, New York, NY
Goss KU (2004) The air/surface adsorption equilibrium of organic compounds under ambient conditions. Crit Rev Environ Sci Technol 34:339–389
Gustafsson Ö, Gschwend PM (1997) Soot as a strong partition medium for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in aquatic systems. In: Eganhouse RP (ed) Molecular markers in environmental geochemistry. American Chemical Society, Washington, D.C., pp 365–381
Gustafsson Ö, Haghseta F, Chan C, MacFarlane J, Gschwend PM (1997) Quantification of the dilute sedimentary soot phase: implications for PAH speciation and bioavailability. Environ Sci Technol 31:203–209
Jonker MT, Koelmans AA (2002a) Extraction of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soot and sediment: solvent evaluation and implications for sorption mechanism. Environ Sci Technol 36:4107–4113
Jonker MTO, Koelmans AA (2002b) Sorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and polychlorinated biphenyls to soot and soot-like materials in the aqueous environment: mechanistic considerations. Environ Sci Technol 36:3725–3734
Jonker M, Smedes F (2000) Preferential sorption of planar contaminants in sediments from Lake Ketelmeer, the Netherlands. Environ Sci Technol 34:1620–1626
Jonker MTO, Hoenderboom AM, Koelmans AA (2004) Effects of sedimentary sootlike materials on bioaccumulation and sorption of polychlorinated biphenyls. Environ Toxicol Chem 23:2563–2570
Jonker MTO, Hawthorne SB, Koelmans AA (2005) Extremely slowly desorbing polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons from soot and soot-like materials: evidence by supercritical fluid extraction. Environ Sci Technol 39:7885–7895
Kamens RM, Odum JR, Fan Z-H (1995) Some observations on times to equilibrium for semivolatile polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Environ Sci Technol 29:43–50
Kaneko K, Abe M, Ogino K (1989) Adsorption characteristics of organic compounds dissolved in water on surface-improved activated carbon fibres. Colloids Surf 37:211–222
Kärger J, Ruthven DM (1992) Diffusion in zeolites and other microporous solids. Wiley, New York, NY
Keiluweit M, Kleber M (2009) Molecular-level interactions in soils and sediments: the role of aromatic pi interactions. Environ Sci Technol 43:3421–3429
Keiluweit M, Nico PS, Johnson MG, Kleber M (2010) Dynamic molecular structure of plant biomass-derived black carbon (biochar). Environ Sci Technol 44:1247–1253
Kilduff JE, Wigton A (1999) Sorption of TCE by humic-preloaded activated carbon: incorporating size-exclusion and pore blockage phenomena in a competitive adsorption model. Environ Sci Technol 33:250–256
Koelmans AA, Meulman B, Meijer T, Jonker MTO (2009) Attenuation of polychlorinated biphenyl sorption to charcoal by humic acids. Environ Sci Technol 43:736–742
Kwon S, Pignatello JJ (2005) Effect of natural organic substances on the surface and adsorptive properties of environmental black carbon (char): pseudo pore blockage by model lipid components and its implications for N2-probed surface properties of natural sorbents. Environ Sci Technol 39:7932–7939
Lahaye J (1990) Mechanisms of soot formation. Polym Degrad Stabil 30:111–121
Lazaridis T (2001) Solvent size vs cohesive energy as the origin of hydrophobicity. Acc Chem Res 34:931–937
Lehmann J, Joseph S (eds) (2009) Biochar for environmental management: science and technology. Earthscan Publications Ltd., London, UK
Li L, Quinlivan PA, Knappe DRU (2002) Effects of activated carbon surface chemistry and pore structure on the adsorption of organic contaminants from aqueous solution. Carbon 40:2085–2100
Li Q, Snoeyink VL, Mariãas BJ, Campos C (2003) Elucidating competitive adsorption mechanisms of atrazine and NOM using model compounds. Water Res 37:773–784
Lighty SJ, Veranth JM, Sarofim AF (2000) Combustion aerosols: factors governing their size and composition and implications to human health. J Air Waste Manag Assoc 50:1565–1618
Lu Y, Pignatello JJ (2004) History-dependent sorption in humic acids and a lignite in the context of a polymer model for natural organic matter. Environ Sci Technol 38:5853–5862
Manes M (1998) Activated carbon adsorption fundamentals. In: Meyers RA (ed) Encyclopedia of environmental analysis and remediation. Wiley, New York, pp 26–68
Martin DS (2003) The adsorption of aromatic acids onto the graphite basal surface. Surf Sci 536:15–23
Masiello CA, Druffel ERM (1998) Black carbon in deep-sea sediments. Science 280:1911–1913
McGinley PM, Katz LE, Weber WJ Jr (1993) A distributed reactivity model for sorption by soils and sediments. 2. Multicomponent systems and competitive effects. Environ Sci Technol 27:1524–1531
McMullen CP, Jabbour J (2009) Climate Change Science Compendium 2009. United Nations Environment Programme. http://www.unep.org/compendium2009/
Mészáros E, Jakab E, Varhegyi G, Bourke J, Manley-Harris M, Nunoura T, Antal MJ (2007) Do all carbonized charcoals have the same chemical structure? 1. Implications of thermogravimetry – mass spectrometry measurements. Ind Eng Chem Res 46:5943–5953
Müller EA, Gubbins KE (1998) Molecular simulation study of hydrophilic and hydrophobic behavior of activated carbon surfaces. Carbon 36:1433–1438
Müller EA, Hung FR, Gubbins KE (2000) Adsorption of water vapor-methane mixtures on activated carbons. Langmuir 16:5418–5424
Newcombe G, Drikas M, Hayes R (1997) Influence of characterised natural organic material on activated carbon adsorption: II. Effect on pore volume distribution and adsorption of 2-methylisoborneol. Water Res 31:1065–1073
Nguyen TH, Ball WP (2006) Absorption and adsorption of hydrophobic organic contaminants to diesel and hexane soot. Environ Sci Technol 40:2958–2964
Olivier JP (1998) Improving the models used for calculating the size distribution of micropore volume of activated carbons from adsorption data. Carbon 36:1469–1472
Palotás ÁB, Rainey LC, Feldermann CJ, Sarofim AF, Vander Sande JB (1996) Soot morphology: an application of image analysis in high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. Microsc Res Tech 33:266–278
Pendleton P, Wong SH, Schumann R, Levay G, Denoyel R, Rouquerol J (1997) Properties of activated carbon controlling 2-methylisoborneol adsorption. Carbon 8:1141–1149
Pignatello JJ (2011) Interactions of anthropogenic organic chemicals with natural organic matter and black carbon in environmental particles. In: Huang PM (ed) Biophysico-chemical processes of anthropogenic organic compounds in environmental systems, vol 3, IUPAC series on biophysico-chemical processes in environmental systems. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, New Jersey, U.S.A. pp 3–50
Pignatello JJ, Xing B (1996) Mechanisms of slow sorption of organic chemicals to natural particles. Environ Sci Technol 30:1–11
Pignatello JJ, Kwon S, Lu Y (2006a) Effect of natural organic substances on the surface and adsorptive properties of environmental black carbon (char): attenuation of surface activity by humic and fulvic acids. Environ Sci Technol 40:7757–7763
Pignatello JJ, Lu Y, LeBoeuf EJ, Huang W, Song J, Xing B (2006b) Nonlinear and competitive sorption of apolar compounds in black carbon-free natural organic materials. J Environ Qual 35(4):1049–1059
Qiu Y, Xiao X, Cheng H, Zhou Z, Sheng GD (2009) Influence of environmental factors on pesticide adsorption by black carbon: pH and model dissolved organic matter. Environ Sci Technol 43:4973–4978
Radovic LR, Silva IF, Ume JI, Menéndez JA, Leon LY, Scaroni AW (1997) An experimental and theoretical study of the adsorption of aromatics possessing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating functional groups by chemically modified activated carbons. Carbon 35:1339–1348
Ramanathan V, Carmichael G (2008) Global and regional climate changes due to black carbon. Nat Geosci 1:221–227
Sander M, Pignatello JJ (2005a) Characterization of charcoal adsorption sites for aromatic compounds: insights drawn from single-solute and bi-solute competitive experiments. Environ Sci Technol 39:1606–1615
Sander M, Pignatello JJ (2005b) An isotope exchange technique to assess mechanisms of sorption hysteresis applied to naphthalene in kerogenous organic matter. Environ Sci Technol 39:7476–7484
Sander M, Pignatello JJ (2007) On the reversibility of sorption to black carbon: distinguishing true hysteresis from artificial hysteresis caused by dilution of a competing adsorbate. Environ Sci Technol 41:843–849
Sander M, Pignatello JJ (2009) Sorption irreversibility of 1,4-dichlorobenzene in two natural organic matter-rich geosorbents. Environ Toxicol Chem 28:447–457
Sander M, Lu Y, Pignatello JJ (2005) A thermodynamically based method to quantify sorption hysteresis. J Environ Qual 34:1063–1072
Sander M, Lu Y, Pignatello JJ (2006) Conditioning annealing studies of natural organic matter solids linking irreversible sorption to irreversible structural expansion. Environ Sci Technol 40:170–178
Schmidt MWI, Noack AG (2000) Black carbon in soils and sediments: analysis, distribution, implications, and current challenges. Global Biogeochem Cycles 14:777–793
Schwarzenbach RP, Gschwend PM, Imboden DM (2002) Environmental organic chemistry, 2nd edn. Wiley, New York, NY
Skjemstad JO, Taylor JA, Smernik RJ (1999) Estimation of charcoal (char) in soils. Commun Soil Sci Plant Anal 30:2283–2298
Smedley JM, Williams A, Bartle KD (1992) A mechanism for the formation of soot particles and soot deposits. Combust Flame 91:71–82
Smith KR (2005) National burden of disease in India from indoor air pollution. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 97:13286–13293
Snoeyink VL, Weber WJ Jr (1967) The surface chemistry of active carbon. Environ Sci Technol 1:228–234
Southall NT, Dill KA, Haymet ADJ (2002) A view of the hydrophobic effect. J Phys Chem B 106:521–533
Strommen MR, Kamens RM (1997) Development and application of a dual-impedance radial diffusion model to simulate the partitioning of semivolatile organic compounds in combustion aerosols. Environ Sci Technol 31:2983–2990
Teixidó M, Pignatello JJ, Beltran JL, Grenados M, Peccia J (2011) Speciation of the ionizable antibiotic sulfamethazine on black carbon (biochar). Environ Sci Technol 45:10020–10027
van Noort PCM, Cornelissen G, Ten Hulscher TEM, Belfoid A (2002) Influence of sorbate planarity on the magnitude of rapidly desorbing fractions of organic compounds in sediment. Environ Toxicol Chem 21:2326–2330
Wen B, Huang RX, Li RJ, Gong P, Zhang S, Pei ZG, Fang J, Shan XQ, Khan SU (2009) Effects of humic acid and lipid on the sorption of phenanthrene on char. Geoderma 150:202–208
Xi J, Zhong B-J (2006) Soot in diesel combustion systems. Chem Eng Technol 29:665–673
Xia G, Ball WP (1999) Adsorption-partitioning uptake of nine low-polarity organic chemicals on a natural sorbent. Environ Sci Technol 33:262–269
Zhu D, Pignatello JJ (2005) Characterization of aromatic compound sorptive interactions with black carbon (charcoal) assisted by graphite as a model. Environ Sci Technol 39:2033–2041
Zhu D, Kwon S, Pignatello JJ (2005) Adsorption of single-ring organic compounds to wood charcoals prepared under different thermochemical conditions. Environ Sci Technol 39:3990–3998
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Pignatello, J.J. (2013). Adsorption of Dissolved Organic Compounds by Black Carbon. In: Xu, J., Sparks, D. (eds) Molecular Environmental Soil Science. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4177-5_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4177-5_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4176-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4177-5
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)