Mineralogical controls on PFAS and anthropogenic anions in subsurface soils and aquifers.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 40169557.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-58040-w and PMC identifier 11962083.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) migrate into the environment through various means, e.g., soil-amendment impurities and ambient atmospheric deposition, potentially resulting in vegetative uptake and migration to groundwater. Existing approaches for modeling sorption of PFAS commonly treat soil as an undifferentiated homogeneous medium, with distribution constants (e.g., K<sub>d</sub>, K<sub>oc</sub>) generated empirically using surface soils. Considering the limited mineral variety expected in weathered geologic media, PFAS mobility can be better understood by accounting for predictable mineral assemblages that are ubiquitously distributed in US soils. Here we explore the role of minerals and electrostatic sorption in controlling PFAS mobility in subsurface settings at contaminated agricultural sites by measuring geochemical parameters and PFAS, and calculating pH-dependent mineral surface charges through full soil and aquifer columns. These data suggest subsurface mobility of short-chain PFAS largely is controlled by aluminum-oxide mineral(oid) electrostatic sorption, whereas long-chain PFAS mobility is controlled by organic matter and air-water interfacial area.