A green and fast chromatographic method for determining organic compound mobility in soils

Soil leaching column chromatography (SLCC) employing totally aqueous mobile phases has been used for the estimation of retardation factors (R) of heterocyclic compounds and heteroatom-substituted aryl derivatives Aniline, Aniside, Cresol, Hydroquinone, p-Nitroaniline, Phenol, Phenylenediamine, Piridine, Sulfanilamide, Sulfathiazole, Sulfamethoxazole, Metolachlor and Toluene in soils with low fraction of organic carbon. Small columns (0.39 cm × 10 cm i.d.) were packed with soils of different compositions (alluvial sediment, coarse sand and standard Eurosoil4 mixed with quartz). The theory of linear chromatography was employed to correlate statistical peak moments to R. Rs estimated through SLCC were compared with those derived from water–organic carbon partitioning coefficient reported in the literature. The adsorption isotherm of Metolachlor was measured by frontal analysis on a small column packed with alluvial sediment. The approach proposed for measuring the adsorption isotherm requires small amounts of chemicals and soils and does not need fraction collection nor detector calibration. The information obtained by SLCC experiments was used to predict the elution of Metolachlor and Phenol on a large column (8.9 cm × 100 cm i.d.) packed with alluvial sediment. The method used in this work, not making use of any chemical solvents, respects the fundamental concepts of green chemistry.