Size fractionation of marine sediments by pinched inlet gravitational split-flow thin fractionation and the study of size dependent PCDD/Fs concentrations from different bay areas

Pinched inlet gravitational split-flow thin fractionation (PI-GSF) has been applied to the continuous size fractionation of marine sediments in order to study the difference in sediment size distribution and the concentration of PCDD/Fs contained in different particle sizes. A PI-GSF channel, known to improve the separation efficiency by reducing the sample inlet thickness, was utilized to fractionate sediments collected from three different bay areas (Geoje, Ulsan, and Pohang) in Korea into 5 different sub-populations (<2.0, 2.0-5.0, 5.0-10, 10-20, 20-63 μm in diameter). The sorted sediment fractions from PI-GSF were examined using electron microscopy to obtain size distribution and the results showed a variation in particle size distribution between bay areas. When the collected particle fractions were examined for size dependent levels of PCDD/Fs, the concentrations of total PCDD/Fs were shown to be much greater for samples collected close to heavy industry complexes than sediments from bay areas without major industry.