Modeling gas/particle partitioning of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the atmosphere: A review

Li-Na Qiao; Peng-Tuan Hu; Robie Macdonald; Kurunthachalam Kannan; Anatoly Nikolaev; Yi-Fan Li

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138962

Modeling gas/particle partitioning of polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the atmosphere: A review

Sci Total Environ. 2020 Aug 10:729:138962. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138962. Epub 2020 Apr 26.

Authors

Li-Na Qiao¹, Peng-Tuan Hu¹, Robie Macdonald², Kurunthachalam Kannan³, Anatoly Nikolaev⁴, Yi-Fan Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; International Joint Research Center for Arctic Environment and Ecosystem (IJRC-AEE), Polar Academy, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China.
² Institute of Ocean Sciences, Department of Fisheries and Oceans, P.O. Box 6000, Sidney, BC V8L 4B2, Canada.
³ Department of Pediatrics, Department of Environmental Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10016, USA.
⁴ Institute of Natural Sciences, North-Eastern Federal University, Russia.
⁵ International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; International Joint Research Center for Arctic Environment and Ecosystem (IJRC-AEE), Polar Academy, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; School of Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China; IJRC-PTS-NA, Toronto, Ontario M2N 6X9, Canada. Electronic address: ijrc_pts_paper@yahoo.com.

PMID: 32353721
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138962

Abstract

Gas/particle (G/P) partitioning of semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs) such as polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), is an important atmospheric process due to its significance in governing atmospheric fate, wet/dry deposition, and long-range atmospheric transport. In this article, eight models published to predict the G/P partitioning of PBDEs are reviewed. These eight models are used to calculate the G/P partitioning quotient and particulate phase fraction of selected PBDE congeners. A comparison of the predicted results from the eight models with monitoring data published by several research groups worldwide leads to the following conclusions: 1) when the values of the logarithm of the octanol-air partition coefficient (logK_OA) fall below 11.4 (the first threshold value, logK_OA1), all 8 models perform well in predicting the G/P partitioning of PBDEs in the atmosphere, and 2) when logK_OA is >11.4, and especially above 12.5 (the second threshold value, logK_OA2), the Li-Ma-Yang model, a steady-state model developed based on wet and dry deposition of the particles (Li et al., Atmos. Chem. Phys. 2015; 15:1669-1681), shows the best performance with highest conformity to the measurements for selected PBDEs (94.4 ± 1.6% data points within ±1 log unit). Overall, the Li-Ma-Yang model appears to capture the most important factors that affect the partitioning of PBDEs between gaseous and particular phases in the atmosphere.

Keywords: Absorption; Adsorption; Atmosphere; Gas/particle partition; Model; Polybrominated diphenyl ethers; Steady state.

Publication types

Review