Sediment-water partition coefficients and HPLC retention factors of aromatic hydrocarbons

Sediment to water partition coefficients have been measured for fourteen alkylbenzene and polyaromatic hydrocarbons together with their HPLC capacity factors. The partition coefficients vary between 10 0.2 and 10 3.7, and different homologous series of hydrocarbons separately correlate both the octanol-water partition coefficients and octadecylisilane capacity factors. All partition coefficients correlate well with the alkylcyano capacity factors, and it is suggested that this mildly polar phase mimics better the sorption onto sediment than either octanol or octadecylsilane phases.