Sorption and diffusion of chlorinated methanes in moist clay

The dynamic behavior of chlorinated methanes in clays exposed to relative humidities (RH) from 0 to 80% was investigated with the single-pellet pulse-response moment technique. Values of effective diffusion coefficients obtained from zeroth moment analysis differed only slightly for dry and moist clay pellets. When the clay pellet was dry, equilibrium adsorption constants of dichloromethane (D), trichloromethane (T), and carbon tetrachloride (C) at the gas-mineral interface were determined from first moments to be 118, 92 and 90 respectively. Dryness factors (dry fraction of surface area) for clays with RH of 5, 20 40, and 60% were also calculated from first moments as 05, 0.1, 0.04 and 0.01, respectively. When the pore surfaces were covered with the water film (dryness factor was 0 for the pellet at RH 80 %), overall equilibrium adsorption constants for the same tracers (D, T, C) at the gas-wafer and water-mineral interfaces were determined to be 7.5, 7.2, and 3.6, respectively.