Estimating K(oc) for persistent organic pollutants: Limitations of correlations with K(ow)

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-1-2000

Abstract

The n-octanol/water partition coefficient (K(ow)) is commonly used to predict the soil or aquatic particle water partition coefficient normalized to organic carbon (K(oc)). Many correlations are available covering several chemical classes and ranges of hydrophobicity. This work indicates the K(ow) may not be a strong predictor for persistent organic pollutants (POPs) which are defined here as chemicals with logK(ow) > 5.0. In addition, the correlation developed in this work for POPs will still result in a predicted value which is of by a factor of 15. Accordingly, care must be taken when applying K(oc) estimations using K(ow) for POPs until more suitable correlations are developed. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.

Publication Title

Chemosphere

Share

COinS