Effects of temperature, relative humidity and soil organic carbon content on soil-air partitioning coefficients of volatile PFAS.

Abstract

Soil-air partitioning coefficient (K_SA) values are often used to assess the environmental fate of organic contaminants in soil. Till now, sufficient K_SA values have not yet been measured for many compounds of interest, including some emerging pollutants such as volatile PFAS. Moreover, the effects of environmental factors such as temperature, relative humidity and soil organic carbon content on K_SA of volatile PFAS are also unclear. In this study, the K_SA values of target volatile PFAS were measured under various temperature (20-40 °C), relative humidity (30-100 %) and soil organic carbon content (2.1 %-8.0 %) using a modified solid-phase fugacity meter. The results showed that higher temperatures, higher relative humidity and lower organic carbon content in soil may accelerate the diffusion of target volatile PFAS. Furthermore, the K_SA measurements were used to derive a multiple linear regression model to depict the relationship between logK_SA and temperature, relative humidity, soil organic carbon content and PFAS-specific logK_OA. When compared with the predictions obtained from semi-empirical model, we argued that the multiple linear regression model is more robust and easier to implement for target volatile PFAS or other emerging volatile PFAS than the semi-empirical approach to help depict the diffusion process at target volatile PFAS contaminated sites.