Macromolecular Transport of Hydrophobic Contaminants in Aqueous Environments.

The mobility of a model macromolecule, blue dextran, was compared under laboratory conditions to the mobility of tritiated water through a sandy soil. The blue dextran eluted from the soil prior to the tritiated water. The phenomenon was compared to exclusion chromatography where molecules are separated by size with the largest eluting first and each molecule flowing through a different portion of the total porosity. The porosity occupied by the macromolecule was 0.87 times the porosity occupied by water. When the soil was amended with a mixture of kaolinite and bentonite clay in a 1:1 ratio to weight fractions of 2% and 6% total clay, the porosity occupied by the macromolecule was decreased to 0.81 and 0.66 times the porosity occupied by water, respectively. The implications to hydrophobic chemical transport based on the presence and mobility of a macromolecule were evaluated from a theoretical basis. Macromolecules should increase the relative mobility of slightly mobile compounds more than they increase the relative mobility of highly mobile compounds. Very hydrophobic compounds should show greater mobility under natural conditions than predicted, ignoring the presence of dissolved organic carbon.