Preliminary note

This and the following three chapters focus on equilibrium partitioning. The first learning goal is a thorough understanding of what equilibrium partitioning is (this chapter). This understanding is crucial not only in environmental chemistry but also in many occasions in our daily life (see the Problem section).

Chapter 3 deals with information that one can derive from the equilibrium partition coefficient K_{i 12}. Chapter 4 and 5 introduce methods to estimate partition coefficients for a given chemical i between any phases of interest.

The following text covers the same content as chapter 2 in the script but in different wording. Why are there 2 versions of the same thing? In the script the emphasis is on a comprehensive and scientifically accurate presentation of the topic. Here, on the learning platform, emphasis is on understandability. We recommend that you start with the text presented here. If you find that you understand the topic (see self test and problems) then you can skip chapter 2 in the script except for Box 1 which is important and which is not repeated here.

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