Hydrophobicity of natural organic matter (NOM) is one of its fundamental properties that influence the environmental fate of pollutants and the performance of many water treatment unit processes. In this study, a high-throughput method was developed for NOM hydrophobicity measurement based on the phase separation technique in the 96-well format. It measures the partition coefficients of NOM (K_ATPS,IL) in an ionic liquid (IL)-based aqueous two-phase system (ATPS). The ATPS was made of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazole bromide solution and a salt solution containing potassium phosphate monobasic and potassium phosphate dibasic. The partition of NOM in IL-based ATPS is mainly affected by its hydrophobicity. log K_ATPS,IL linearly correlated with the commonly used NOM hydrophobicity scales, including (O + N)/C, O/C, and aromatic carbons. K_ATPS,IL provided a more accurate assessment of NOM hydrophobicity than spectroscopic indices. Furthermore, K_ATPS,IL can predict the organic carbon–water partition coefficients for hydrophobic organic chemical sorption to NOM based on the two-phase system model. The high-throughput K_ATPS,IL measurement and the two-phase system model can be applied to real surface water samples. Our results suggest that the proposed high-throughput method has great potential to be applied to monitor NOM hydrophobicity for environmental risk assessment and water treatment purposes.

中文翻译：

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使用基于离子液体的两相系统进行天然有机物疏水性评估的高通量方法

天然有机物 (NOM) 的疏水性是其基本特性之一，它影响污染物的环境归宿和许多水处理单元工艺的性能。在本研究中，基于 96 孔格式的相分离技术，开发了一种用于 NOM 疏水性测量的高通量方法。它测量基于离子液体 (IL) 的水性两相系统 (ATPS)中 NOM ( K _ATPS,IL )的分配系数。ATPS由1-丁基-3-甲基咪唑溴化物溶液和含有磷酸二氢钾和磷酸二氢钾的盐溶液制成。NOM 在基于 IL 的 ATPS 中的分配主要受其疏水性的影响。log K _ATPS,IL与常用的 NOM 疏水性尺度呈线性相关，包括 (O + N)/C、O/C 和芳香碳。K _ATPS,IL提供了比光谱指数更准确的 NOM 疏水性评估。此外，K _ATPS,IL可以基于两相系统模型预测疏水性有机化学吸附到 NOM 的有机碳-水分配系数。高通量K _ATPS,IL测量和两相系统模型可应用于真实地表水样品。我们的结果表明，所提出的高通量方法具有用于监测 NOM 疏水性以进行环境风险评估和水处理目的的巨大潜力。