Fluorescent Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons as Probes for Studying the Impact ofColloids on Pollutant Transport in Groundwater

摘要

A fluorescence-quenching method was developed to assess the hydrophobic organicpollutant binding potential of organic colloids (OC) in unaltered natural waters. This method allows direct assessment of the importance of OC-enhanced pollutant transport for environmental samples under in situ water chemistry conditions, without requiring the isolation of OC or separation of equilibrated phases; testing of chemicals that suffer substantial wall losses from aqueous solutions; and examination of unstable water samples such as anoxic samples. The experiments show that some OC (Aldrich humic acids) fully quench OC-associated perylene fluorescence, but others (bovine serum albumin) do not. This implies that fluorescence-quenching results collected for a single (OC) or over a limited (OC) range provide only a lower limit estimate of the potential for OC association. Tests with groundwater, recharged with secondarily treated sewage and containing OC at concentrations of about 1 mg of C/L, showed temporal variation in the ability of OC present to quench or bind perylene. (Copyright (c) by the American Chemical Society, 1990.)