title: Occurrence of quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) and their application as a tracer for sewage derived pollution in urban estuarine sediments.
abstract: Particle reactive organic contaminants in estuarine sediments can lead to various environmental problems affecting ecosystem and public health. In this study, the occurrence and homologous distribution pattern of quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs) in the surficial sediments collected from the Pearl River Estuary (PRE), China were examined along with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs). The composition pattern of the QACs was found to be uniform in most of the sediments analyzed throughout the PRE, and the average composition pattern was identical to that determined in the sewage sludge from Guangzhou, the biggest city in the PRE. Dialkyldimethylammonium compounds, the most abundant type of QACs, positively correlated to the total concentrations of PCBs and PBDEs in most of the sediments with similar composition patterns. Therefore, the QACs are proposed as potential tracers to evaluate the transport of sewage-derived pollution in estuarine environments.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Oceanography & Earth Science, Xiamen University, 361005, China. Electronic address: xlli@xmu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaolin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Xiaojun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou 510640, China.
authors.forename: Bixian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mai
authors.affiliation: South China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center, State Oceanic Administration, Guangzhou 510300, China.
authors.forename: Jingqin
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Oceanography & Earth Science, Xiamen University, 361005, China.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, College of Oceanography & Earth Science, Xiamen University, 361005, China.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D063366:Estuaries; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls / Q000032:analysis; D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds / Q000032:analysis*; D045483:Rivers / Q000737:chemistry; D012722:Sewage / Q000032:analysis* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*
chemical_list: D000644:Quaternary Ammonium Compounds; D012722:Sewage; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; D011078:Polychlorinated Biphenyls
keywords: Pearl River Estuary; Persistent organic pollutants; Quaternary ammonium compounds; Sediment; Sewage tracer