Polydopamine-coated polyethylene sieve plate as an efficient and convenient adsorption sink for the bioaccessibility prediction of PAHs in soils

Bioaccessibility measurements of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in soils are significant for exposure risk assessment. The current physicochemical methods require tedious operation processes, underestimate the actual risks, or are unsuitable for high organic content soils. In this work, an efficient and convenient method based on polydopamine-coated polyethylene sieve plate (PDA@PESP) and hydroxypropyl-β-cyclodextrin (HPCD) was developed to predict the bioaccessibility of PAHs in multi-type soils. The PDA@PESP can be prepared via in situ self-polymerization, allowing to extract PAHs from HPCD solution quantitatively and rapidly. When applied to evaluate the bioaccessibility with PDA@PESP as an adsorption sink and HPCD as a diffusive carrier, the proposed method can significantly improve the extractable fraction of PAHs compared to single HPCD extraction in particular for high organic carbon content soil and high-ring PAHs. The desorption kinetics data indicated that the method can predict the bioaccessible fraction of PAHs. In addition, the method predicted a satisfactory accumulation into earthworms (Eisenia fetida) with a slope statistically approximated to 1. A highly significant linear regression (R2 = 0.95) was also found between the proposed method and Tenax desorption in historically contaminated soils, demonstrating that the method is an efficient and convenient approach for the bioaccessibility prediction of PAHs in soils. [Display omitted] •PDA@PESP was synthesized and displayed excellent extraction efficiency towards PAHs from HPCD solution.•PDA@PESP coupled with HPCD significantly improved the extractable fraction of PAHs from soils.•The desorption kinetics data can be used for bioaccessible fraction prediction.•HPCD/PDA@PESP extraction provided similar bioaccessibility prediction to Tenax extraction and earthworm accumulation.•HPCD/PDA@PESP extraction is time-saving, economical and easy to operate. The main finding of the work: PDA@PESP coupled with HPCD was demonstrated to be an efficient, economical and convenient approach for the bioaccessibility prediction of PAHs in soils.