Physico-chemical properties and toxicity of alkylated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons

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 (K_PDMSw), and partition coefficient between liposomes and water (K_lipw)) 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 K_ow, 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 K_ow or log K_lipw and log (1/EC₅₀) were found.