STUDY OF THE TRIBUTYLTIN WATER-SOLID PARTITIONING

The partitioning of tributyltin between water and various particulate materials (SS: suspended solids) in river or marine waters was studied under laboratory conditions. The experimental design involved six ind ependent factors (time, temperature, nature and concentration of sedim ent type, particulate matter, salinity and initial TBT concentration i n water). Maximum adsorption capacity and adsorption rate were determi ned. Langmuir's isotherms and Arrhenius' law were used to evaluate act ivation energies in the order of 10 Kcal mol-1 suggesting that TBT ads orption is a physical phenomena (physisorption) with a low binding ene rgy.