A column transport laboratory experiment was developed for use in upper-level analytical/instrumental chemistry courses to measure the sorption behavior of organic compounds undergoing transport in natural soil materials. The displacement and shape of the �pollutant� break-through curves (BTCs) are directly analogous to packed column separations in liquid chromatography using homogeneous stationary phases and particle sizes. The experiment requires students to set up the pump/column/collector apparatus, pack and saturate a column, determine the physical characteristics of the column (bulk density and porosity), and run both conservative and reactive tracer experiments. After analysis of the column effluent samples, the students manipulate the data to create a typical BTC plot of Relative Concentration vs. Porevolume. That same data is then analyzed using a one-dimensional advection-dispersion model to determine the retardation and dispersion characteristics of the conservative and reactive solutes. The column transport retardation and dispersion parameters are correlated back to the chromatographic parameters for retention factor / partition coefficient and diffusion coefficients.  In addition to the experimental and data analysis learning outcomes, this project demonstrates how environmental scientists use and benefit from the work of chemists and chromatographic theory.

Contaminant transport in porous media: Making connections to chromatography

247th National Meeting (2014)

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