Sorption and leaching behavior of perfluorinated compounds in soil

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.