The information related to the heavy metal pollution in the environment was obtained from studies on the effects of pH, phosphate and soil properties on the adsorption of metal ions (Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn) by soils. Three soil materials; soil 1 with low CEC (8.2 me/100g) and low organic carbon content (0.34%); soil 2 with high CEC (36.4 me/100g) and low organic carbon content (1.8%) and soil 3 with high CEC (49.9 me/100g) and high organic carbon content (14.7%) were used. Soils were adjusted to several pH´s and equilibrated with metal ion mixtures of 4 different concentrations, each having equal equivalents of each metal ion (0.63, 1.88, 3.12 and 4.38 micromoles per one gram soil with and without 10 micromoles of phosphate per one gram soil).
Reported here are the results of the equilibrium study on soil I. The rest of the results on soil 2 and soil 3 will be repoted subsequeutly. Generally higher metal ion conc~ntration solution resulted in higher final metal ion concentrations in the equilibrated solution and phosphate had minimal effect except it tended to enhance removal of cadmium and zinc from equilibrated solutions while it tended to decrease the removal of copper and nickel.
In soil 1, percentages of added metal ions removed at pH 5.10 were; Cu 97, Ni 69, Cd 63, and Zn 55, while increasing pH to 6.40, they were increased to Cu 90.9, Zn 99, Ni 96, and Cd 92 per
As initial metal ion concentration increased, final metal ion concentrations in the equilibrated solution showed a relationship with pH of the system as they fit to the equation p[M^(++)]=a pH-f-b where p[M^(++)]=-log[metal ion concentration in Mol/liter]. The magnitude of pH and soil effects were reflected in slope (a) of the equation, and were different among metal ions and soils. Slopes (a) for metal ions in the aqueous system are all 2. In soil 1 they were; Zn 1.23, Cu 0.99, Ni 0.69 and Cd 0.59 at highest concentration. The adsorption of Cd, Ni, and Zn in soil 1 could be represented by the Iangmuir isotherm. However, construction of the Iangmuir isotherm required the correction for pH differences.
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