Unraveling competition versus adsorbability of dissolved organic matter against organic micropollutants onto activated carbon

• In natural water, some adsorbable DOM was not competitive against OMPs. • Varying amount of DOM competitors for each OMP could be separated by their adsorbability. • Weaker adsorbable OMP had to compete with a larger amount of DOM competitors. • More DOM components acted as competitors when initial OMP concentration increased. It was widely acknowledged that dissolved organic matter (DOM) in natural water has ubiquitous competitiveness against organic micropollutants (OMPs) during adsorption onto activated carbon. However, some (model) low molecular weight organics have been reported to adsorb onto activated carbon, but were not competitive against co-adsorbates. The objective of this study is to identify which adsorbable DOM fractions in natural water contribute to the DOM competitiveness, and what is the impact of the OMP adsorbability and initial OMP concentration on this competitiveness. We, therefore, disassociated the adsorption of DOM fractions and OMPs (carbamazepine, caffeine and sulfamethoxazole) using a two-stage adsorption procedure, removing various adsorbable DOM fractions with powdered activated carbon pretreatment and then unraveling the competitiveness against OMPs of the remaining DOM. Our results demonstrated that DOM competition was not ubiquitous for all adsorbable fractions in natural water, and ∼ 25% of the adsorbable DOM was not competitive. The poorly adsorbable DOM was shown to be a non-competitive co-adsorbate, and its complexation even elevated the adsorption capacity of one of the OMPs (carbamazepine). The amount of DOM competitors increased for weaker adsorbable OMPs, and at higher initial OMP concentrations. The variability in DOM competition, differentiated by DOM adsorbability, has advanced the understanding of DOM competition, from ubiquitous competition to variable roles (varying competitiveness/complementary adsorption) of differently adsorbable DOM fractions during OMP adsorption.