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Sorption and Leaching Behavior of Perfluorinated Compounds in Soil

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Polyfluorinated Chemicals and Transformation Products

Part of the book series: The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry ((HEC,volume 17))

Abstract

Perfluorinated compounds can be detected worldwide in both, soil and water. In order to study the sorption and leaching behavior of this heterogeneous group of compounds in soil, among others, flow-through column experiments have been conducted. These experiments performed so far show that the percolation velocity is strongly dependent on the size i.e., the chain length of the molecule. Perfluorinated compounds with short chain lengths leach faster than perfluorinated compounds with longer chain lengths. Other factors that may influence the leaching behavior are the functional group of the perfluorinated compounds, the organic carbon content of the soil and the presence of other adsorbates. The dominating perfluorinated compounds in surface waters are perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid. With these data it will be possible to model the environmental fate of perfluorinated compounds of different chain lengths.

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Abbreviations

Kd:

Partition or distribution coefficient

K OC :

Soil organic carbon normalized distribution coefficient

PFBA:

Perfluorobutanoic acid

PFBS:

Perfluorobutane sulfonic acid

PFC:

Perfluorinated compounds

PFCA:

Perfluorocarboxylic acid

PFDA:

Perfluorodecanoic acid

PFDoDA:

Perfluorododecanoic acid

PFDS:

Perfluorodecane sulfonic acid

PFHpA:

Perfluoroheptanoic acid

PFHxA:

Perfluorohexanoic acid

PFHxS:

Perfluorohexane sulfonic acid

PFNA:

Perfluorononanoic acid

PFOA:

Perfluorooctanoic acid

PFOS:

Perfluorooctane sulfonic acid

PFOSA:

Perfluorooctane sulfonamide

PFPeA:

Perfluoropentanoic acid

PFSA:

Perfluoro sulfonic acid

PFTeDA:

Perfluorotetradecanoic acid

PFUnDA:

Perfluoroundecanoic acid

WWTP:

Waste water treatment plant

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Applied Sciences Fresenius, Institute for Analytical Research, Limburger Str. 2, 65510, Idstein, Germany

    Vanessa Gellrich & Thomas P. Knepper

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  1. Vanessa Gellrich
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  2. Thomas P. Knepper
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Correspondence to Thomas P. Knepper .

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  1. , Institute for Analytical Chemistry (IDAR, University of Applied Sciences Fresenius, Limburger Str. 2, Idstein, 65510, Germany

    Thomas P. Knepper

  2. DVGW Water Technology Center, Karlsruher Str. 84, Karlsruhe, 76139, Germany

    Frank T. Lange

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Gellrich, V., Knepper, T.P. (2012). Sorption and Leaching Behavior of Perfluorinated Compounds in Soil. In: Knepper, T., Lange, F. (eds) Polyfluorinated Chemicals and Transformation Products. The Handbook of Environmental Chemistry(), vol 17. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21872-9_4

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