Formation of bound residues by naphthalene and cis-naphthalene-1,2-dihydrodiol.

The formation of bound residues by naphthalene and its metabolite, cis-naphthalene-1,2-dihydrodiol, in a sediment (1% OC), a silty loam soil (2.9% OC) and a peat (26% OC) was examined. The experiments were carried out under both sterile and nonsterile conditions for up to 35 days. The samples containing bound contaminant were hydrolyzed at an alkaline pH and fractionated using 3,000 and 500 Da molecular weight cutoff ultrafiltration membranes in series. The results for all the geosorbents examined showed that bound residue formation is low for naphthalene and between 5 and 20 times higher for the metabolite. The amount of bound residues released by hydrolysis was higher for the metabolite than for the parent compound for all the samples. The molecular weight distribution of bound radioactivity after hydrolysis showed binding to the high molecular weight components of the sediment organic matter and to the low molecular weight components for soil and peat organic matter when incubated with cis-naphthalene-1,2-dihydrodiol. Experiments performed with naphthalene-UL-(14)C showed larger amounts of bound residue found than in experiments with naphthalene-1-(14)C.