Sorption equilibrium of a wide spectrum of organic vapors in Leonardite humic acid: experimental setup and experimental data

The environmental fate of volatile and semivolatile organic compounds is determined by their partitioning between air and soil constituents, in particular soil organic matter (SOM). While there are many studies on the partitioning of nonpolar compounds between water and SOM, data on sorption of polar compounds and data for sorption from the gas phase are rather limited. In this study, Leonardite humic acid/air partition coefficients for 188 polar and nonpolar organic compounds at temperatures between 5 and 75 degrees C and relative humidities between < 0.01% and 98% have been determined using a dynamic flow-through technique. To the best of our knowledge, this is by far the largest and most diverse and consistent data set for sorption into humic material published so far. The major results are as follows: the relative humidity affected the experimental partition coefficients by up to a factor of 3; polar compounds generally sorbed more strongly than nonpolar compounds due to H-bonding (electron donor/ acceptor interactions) with the humic acid; no glass transitions in the range of 5-75 degrees C that would be relevant with respect to the sorption behavior of hydrated Leonardite humic acid were observed; our experimental data agree well with experimental partition coefficients from various literature sources.