Solution Properties of Inorganic Contamination in Mixed Solvents: Theory, Progress, and Limitations

Abstract

Most of what is known about the environmental fate and transport of contaminants comes from studies of dilute, aqueous solutions. Theoretical and practical aspects of hydrophobic organic contaminants in aqueous mixtures of organic solvents are well developed, but relatively little attention has been paid to those situations where inorganic contaminants such as metals, water, and organic solvents occur simultaneously. The authors discuss changes in solution properties accompanying the addition of organic solvents. They review more than 500 references to available data on ion solvation, solubility, activity, acidity, pairing, and pH in electrolyte and electrolyte-free solvent mixtures and tabulate selected experimental values. Whenever available, equations developed to estimate these properties are given and their applications and limitations described. The implications of the progress in mixed-solvents solution chemistry on contaminant behavior and transport are described. Major limitations to the study of inorganic contamination in mixed solvents include the absence of complete and comprehensive data (e.g., type of ionic species, activity coefficients, solubility constants) that characterize solute and solvent properties in these mixtures and the indefinite number of possible solute and solvent combinations. The generation of models predicting such data from easily measured benchmark solute and solvent properties is a major challenge. The availability of such database and models may open the field for environmental engineers and soil scientists to study the basic chemical processes and mechanisms of metal contamination in complex multicomponent systems.