Immobilization of nanoparticles in diatomaceous earth: A synthetic sediment for studying sorption by environmental black carbon

A new method for studying sorption with diesel and hexane soots was developed. Diatomaceous earth in the form of Celite was used as an inert material for immobilization (entrapment) of soot nanoparticles to create a combined sorbent with both inorganic and black carbon phases, which is a considered as a material for studying hydrophobic organic chemical sorption to soot carbon in sediments. Soot material collected from diesel exhaust or hexane flame was mixed with precombusted Celite under dry conditions that allowed many of the nano-micro-size soot aggregates to be incorporated within the pore structure of the Celite. The new method has the important advantage of allowing study with very hydrophobic chemicals such as PAH and PCB at reasonable sorbent/liquid ratios. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 228th ACS National Meeting (Philadelphia, PA 8/22-26/2004).