There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Abstract
Crude oil and refined petroleum products contain many polycyclic and heterocyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons, in particular, alkylated PAHs. Although alkylated PAHs are
found in significantly higher quantities than their corresponding unsubstituted PAHs,
the most studies on the physico-chemical properties and toxicities of these compounds
have been conducted on unsubstituted PAHs. In this study, we measured crucial physico-chemical
properties (i.e., water solubility, partition coefficients between polydimethylsiloxane
and water (KPDMSw), and partition coefficient between liposomes and water (Klipw))
of selected alkylated PAHs, and evaluated their toxicity using the luminescence inhibition
of Aliivibrio fischeri and growth inhibition of Raphidocelis subcapitata. In general,
the logarithms of these properties for alkylated PAHs showed good linear correlations
with log Kow, as did those for unsubstituted PAHs. Changes in molecular symmetry on
the introduction of alkyl groups on aromatic ring structure significantly altered
water solubility. The inhibition of bacterial luminescence and algal growth by alkylated
PAHs can be explained well by the baseline toxicity hypothesis, and good linear relationships
between log Kow or log Klipw and log (1/EC50) were found.