Preparation of aqueous solutions of sparingly soluble organic substances: I. Single component systems

The mass transfer theory underlying the dissolution of sparingly soluble hydrophobic organic chemicals in water is reviewed. It is shown that the preferred method of preparing saturated solutions of such chemicals for physical-chemical or bioassay purposes is by use of the generator column technique, in which water flows through a length of high-surface-area packing coated with the test chemical. The use of shake-flask or batch contacting systems is shown to have inherent disadvantages. A method of calculating the approach to saturation is presented. Solubility data are reported for 13 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, three of which have not been previously reported, and for 10 polychlorinated biphenyl congeners.