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The fate of organic pollutants in the environment is influenced by several factors including the type and strength of their interactions with soil components especially SOM. However, a molecular level answer to the question How organic pollutants interact with SOM? is lacking. In order to explore mechanisms of this interaction, we have developed a new SOM model followed by carrying out molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in parallel with sorption experiments. The new SOM model comprises free SOM functional groups (carboxylic acid and naphthalene) as well as SOM cavities (with two different sizes), representing the soil voids, containing the same SOM functional groups. To examine the effect of the hydrophobicity on the interaction, the organic pollutants hexachlorobenzene (HCB, non-polar) and sulfanilamide (SAA, polar) were considered. The experimental and the theoretical outcomes explored four major points regarding sorption of SAA and HCB on soil. 1. The interaction depends on the SOM chemical composition more than the SOM content. 2. The interaction causes a site-specific adsorption on the soil surfaces. 3. Sorption hysteresis occurs, which can be explained by inclusion of these pollutants inside soil voids. 4. It was observed that the hydrophobic HCB is adsorbed on soil stronger than the hydrophilic SAA. Moreover, the theoretical results showed that HCB forms stable complexes with all SOM models in the aqueous solution while most of SAA complexes are accompanied by dissociation. The SOM-cavity modeling showed a significant effect on binding of organic pollutants to SOM.

Hazardous persistent organic pollutants (POPs) interact in soil with the soil organic matter (SOM) but this interaction is insufficiently understood at the molecular level. We investigated the adsorption of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) on soil samples with systematically modified SOM. These samples included the original soil, the soil modified by adding a hot water extract (HWE) fraction (soil+3 HWE and soil+6 HWE), and the pyrolyzed soil. The SOM contents increased in the order pyrolyzed soil < original soil < soil+3 HWE < soil+6 HWE. For the latter three samples this order was also valid for the HCB adsorption. The pyrolyzed soil adsorbed more HCB than the other samples at low initial concentrations, but at higher concentrations the HCB adsorption became weaker than in the samples with HWE addition. This adsorption behaviour combined with the differences in the chemical composition between the soil samples suggested that alkylated aromatic, phenol, and lignin monomer compounds contributed most to the HCB adsorption. To obtain a molecular level understanding, a test set has been developed on the basis of elemental analysis which comprises 32 representative soil constituents. The calculated binding free energy for HCB with each representative system shows that HCB binds to SOM stronger than to soil minerals. For SOM, HCB binds to alkylated aromatic, phenols, lignin monomers, and hydrophobic aliphatic compounds stronger than to polar aliphatic compounds confirming the above adsorption isotherms. Moreover, quantitative structure-activity relationship (QSAR) of the binding free energy with independent physical properties of the test set systems for the first time indicated that the polarizability, the partial charge on the carbon atoms, and the molar volume are the most important properties controlling HCB-SOM interactions.