The relationship between the properties of PAHs and the rate of their disappearance from soils

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The objective of the study was to evaluate the relation between the properties of some PAH compounds and their persistence in soils. The degradation of four PAHs (fluorene, anthracene, pyrene and chrysene) in ten different soils was studied in laboratory experiments. The soil samples artificially contaminated with the mixture of PAHs compounds on the level of 20 mg of each hydrocarbon per kg of soil were incubated during 180 days at dark at temperature 20 °C and analysed periodically for PAHs content. The range and the rate of PAHs disappearance from soils was correlated with their volatilisation ability (characterised by Henry's constant — H s ), bioavalibility (characterised by water solubility — W s ) and sorption affinity (characterised by three parameters: octanol‐water partition coefficient — log Kows, first‐order connectivity index — 1 χ and molecular surface area ‐ MSA). The results shown, that the strength of the relationship between PAHs properties and the range of their degradation depended on the contact time. The highest correlation coefficients corresponded to the parameters related to surface area: MSA and 1 χ.