Competitive retention and desorption of inorganic anions on natural soil gibbsite

Abstract

The objective of this work was to quantify the competitive retention and desorption of nitrate, sulfate, silicate and phosphate anions on gibbsitic clay fraction of a Melanic Gleisol. Samples of clay fraction were shaken in centrifuge tubes with 30 mmol_c L^-1 NaCl solution containing these anions in quantities equivalent to 30% of the respective maximum adsorption capacity exhibited by clay. For comparative purposes, samples were also shaken with the same solution containing 1 mmol_c L^-1 of each mentioned anion. The tubes were centrifuged and the anionic concentrations in supernatants were determined. The dessorption was performed by shaking the residual clay fraction in centrifuge tubes with NaCl solution and quantifying the released anions. In another experiment, with the silicon phosphorus previously adsorbed to gibbsite, P and Si were added in the sequence, intercalated for evaluating the capacity of desorpting the previously adsorbed anion. The phosphate was preferentially adsorbed in relation to the other studied anions and the previous silicon application reduced the phosphate fixation. The silicon application previously to phosphate favours the bioavailability of P in highly weathered soils.