SREL Reprint #2379

Elucidating fundamental mechanisms in soil and environmental chemistry: the role of advanced analytical, spectroscopic, and microscopic methods

Paul M. Bertsch and Douglas B. Hunter

Advanced Analytical Center for Environmental Sciences, University of Georgia, Aiken, South Carolina

Introduction: Soil chemists have a rich history of using advanced analytical and spectroscopic methods for the characterization of soil constituents and for the examination of solute interactions with mineral surfaces and humic macromolecules. The term advanced is, of course, arbitrary as well as relative. Whereas x-ray diffractometers and atomic absorption (AA) spectrometers (Table 5-1) were once thought of as sophisticated instrumentation that, at the time, provided important insights into the nature of soil constituents and soil solution components, they now are quite routine and standard. In fact, the sophisticated replacements of the AA, i.e., the ICP and then ICP-MS spectrometer have become routine in most soil chemistry laboratories. Other analytical methods for chemical analyses, such as HPLC, IC, GC-GC-MS, and a host of the so-called hyphenated techniques also have become common, yet powerful tools that are used by soil chemists to provide unparalleled characterization data of soil and soil solution constituents. The detailed characterization provided by these analytical methods is leading to a more complete understanding of the complex processes that control the fate and behavior of nutrients and contaminants in soil systems.

SREL Reprint #2379

Bertsch, P.M. and D.B. Hunter. 1998. Elucidating fundamental mechanisms in soil and environmental chemistry: the role of advanced analytical, spectroscopic, and microscopic methods. SSSA Special Publication Future Prospects for Soil Chemistry 55:103-122.

This information was provided by the University of Georgia's Savannah River Ecology Laboratory (srel.uga.edu).