NOVEL APPROACHES FOR DETERMINATION OF THE CHEMICAL AVAILABILITY OF METAL(LOID)S IN SOIL BASED ON THE K_D CONCEPT

Johannes T. van Elteren

National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract

A theoretical framework is presented to introduce several novel approaches for deduction of the chemically available metal(loid) concentrations in soil. The framework is based on the K_D concept assuming a linear relationship between the extractable metal(loid) concentration in the solid phase and the metal(loid) concentration in the liquid phase. The approaches introduced include both exact approaches using (radioactive or stable) tracers and approximate approaches using more conventional extraction techniques.

Key words: sol, metal(loid)s, chemical availability, partitioning coefficient