Determination of water-soluble forms of inorganic cations in soils, clays, peat, wastewater silt, activated sludge, and bottom sediments

INTRODUCTION

The content of water-soluble forms of inorganic cations (ammonium, potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium) is one of the substantial characteristics in agrochemical, land reclamation, and sanitary assessments of soils (arable, hayland, pasturable, forest nursery soils). The cation balance should be controlled during ecological soil monitoring for the human activity impact assessment.

MEASUREMENT METHOD

The measurement method is based on the extraction of water-soluble forms of cations with distilled water from a soil sample and subsequent separation, identification, and determination of analyzed components by the capillary electrophoresis method with indirect detection at wavelength of 254 or 267 nm.