A number of different methods have been used for modeling the sorption of volatile organic chlorinated compounds such as tetrachloroethylene/perchloroethylene (PCE). In this study, PCE was adsorbed in several natural sorbents, i.e., Pahokee peat, vermicompost, BionSoil^®, and natural soil, in the batch experiments. Several sorption models such as linear, Freundlich, solubility-normalized Freundlich model, and Polanyi-Manes model (PMM) were used to analyze sorption isotherms. The relationship between sorption model parameters, organic carbon content ( f_oc), and elemental C/N ratio was studied. The organic carbon normalized partition coefficient values (log K_oc = 1.50-3.13) in four different sorbents were less than the logarithm of the octanol-water partition coefficient (log K_ow = 3.40) of PCE due to high organic carbon contents. The log K_oc decreased linearly with log f_oc and log C/N ratio, but increased linearly with log O/C, log H/C, and log (N+O)/C ratio. Both log K_F,oc or log K_F,oc decreased linearly with log f_oc (R² = 0.88-0.92) and log C/N ratio (R² = 0.57-0.76), butincreased linearly with log (N+O)/C (R² = 0.93-0.95). The log q_max,oc decreased linearly as log f_oc and log C/N increased, whereas it increased with log O/C, log H/C and log (N+O)/C ratios. The log q_max,oc increased linearly with (N+O)/C indicating a strong dependence of q_max,oc on the polarity index. The results showed that PCE sorption behaviors were strongly correlated with the physicochemical properties of soil organic matter (SOM).

Keywords: Elemental ratio, Sorption, Sorbent, Solubility-normalization, Soil organic matter, Tetrachloroethylene