Sorption and Transport of Hydrophobic Organic Chemicals in Aqueous and Mixed Solvent Systems: Model Development and Preliminary Evaluation

A theoretical approach, based upon the assumption of predominance of solvophobic interactions, was formulated to quantitatively describe the sorption and transport of hydrophohic organic chemicals (HOC) from aqueous and aqueous‐organic‐solvent mixtures. In the theoretical approach, solvent‐sorbate interactions (solubility) are specifically considered in order to predict sorbate‐sorbent interactions (sorption). For HOC sorption from a single solvent, the HOC sorption coefficient was shown to increase loglinearly with the hydrocarbonaceous surface area (HSA) of the sorbate. For HOC sorption from aqueous‐organic binary solvent mixtures, the sorption coefficient is predicted to decrease exponentially as the fraction of organic cosolvent increases. This is a direct consequence of increased HOC solubility in the binary solvent. Because sorption and mobility of HOC are inversely related, a decrease in sorption coefficient leads to an enhanced HOC mobility as the fraction of organic cosolvent is increased. A preliminary verification of the theory was performed by an analysis of published data for (i) HOC sorption by soils and sediments from water, (ii) HOC retention by reversed‐phase chromatographic sorbents during isocratic elution with methanol‐water binary solvent mixture, and (iii) HOC mobility on soil‐TLC plates eluted with ethanol‐water mixtures.