Partitioning of a Surfactant Between Lake Water, Suspended Solids and Sediment

The partitioning of linear alkylbenzenesulfonates (LAS) between solution and adsorbed phases and the factors of the partitioning are summarized herein based on the field observation and the adsorption experiment. All adsorption experiments using suspended solids and sediment solids taken from Lake Teganuma were performed between 0.2 and 6 mg l⁻¹ of the initial LAS concentrations. The relationships between the partition coefficient of LAS and two factors of solid concentration in the water and the fractional organic carbon content of solid were confirmed. Based on our experimental results, it was expected that the partition coefficient of LAS in the natural water or sediment could be estimated by an empirical model, and this model was verified by using the adsorption data from field observations. A reasonable agreement between the observed and the predicted partition coefficient was obtained (correlation coefficient was between 0.48 and 0.83).