Structural Evaluation of Slow Desorbing Sites in Model and Natural Solids Using Temperature Stepped Desorption Profiles. 2. Column Results

Abstract

Results from temperature stepped desorption (TSD) experiments are presented and compared with simulations from the TSD model presented in the first of this two-paper series. TSD columns were filled with a sand, a sediment, a soil, or a silica gel, all at 100% relative humidity. Next, TSD columns were equilibrated with trichloroethene (TCE), initially purged at 30 °C, and then heated to 60 °C after 100, 1000, or 10 000 min of slow desorption. One γ distribution of diffusion rate constants at 30 °C and one γ distribution of diffusion rate constants at 60 °C were used to simulate column results at all three heating times for a single solid. At each heating time, diffusion rate constants of the γ distributions at 30 °C and 60 °C were used to calculated an effective activation energy, Eact,eff. Values of Eact,eff for all solids were between 47 and 94 kJ/mol, on the order of activation energy values found for diffusion in microporous solids. Between 100 and 10 000 min heating times, the value of Eact,eff increased by a factor of 1.7 for the sand and by a factor of ∼1.1 for the sediment and the soil. This suggests that diffusion occurs from micropores with a wider distribution of widths in the sand than in the other solids and that with decreasing mass remaining diffusion occurs from successively smaller width micropores. For the sediment, values of Eact,eff and 〈D/lm2〉 were lower than those in the other solids. For a given sorbate, larger width micropores are associated with smaller values of Eact,eff and larger values of D. Hence, it is likely that micropores in the sediment are both wider and longer (i.e. larger value of lm2) than those in the other solids. These results suggest that micropore geometry varies between natural solids, and it is an important parameter that must be quantified to predict rates of slow desorption.