Pharmaceutically active compounds (PhACs) enter soil with organic waste materials such as manure. Such complex substrates differently affect PhACs' soil sorption. For the first time, batch experiments were conducted using five selected chemicals as model constituents to elucidate the effects. Urea, phosphate (KH2PO4), acetic acid, phenol and nonadecanoic acid (C:19) altered the sorption strength and/or nonlinearity of sulfadiazine, caffeine, and atenolol in an arable Cambisol topsoil. The nonlinear Freundlich model best described sorption. Overall, the PhACs' Freundlich coefficients (sorption strength) increased in the sequence urea < phosphate < phenol < C:19 < acetic acid, while the Freundlich exponents largely decreased, indicating increasing sorption specificity. The effects on sulfadiazine and caffeine were rather similar, but in many cases different from atenolol. Phosphate mobilized sulfadiazine and caffeine and urea mobilized sulfadiazine, which was explained by sorption competition resulting from specific preference of similar sorption sites. Soil sorbed phenol strongly increased the sorption of all three PhACs; phenolic functional groups are preferred sorption sites of PhACs in soil. The large increase in sorption of all PhACs by acetic acid was attributed to a loosening of the soil organic matter and thus the creation of additional sorption sites. The effect of C:19 fatty acid, however, was inconsistent. These results help to better understand the sorption of PhACs in soil-manure mixtures.
Keywords: atenolol; caffeine; dissolved organic matter; sewage; sorption competition; specific sorption; sulfadiazine.