
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Parfitt, R. L. 
A1  - Whitton, J. S. 
A1  - Theng, B. K. G. 
T1  - Surface reactivity of A horizons towards polar compounds estimated from water adsorption and water content
JF  - Soil Research
JO  - Soil Res.
Y1  - 2001
VL  - 39
IS  - 5
SP  - 1105
EP  - 1110
KW  - allophane, clay mineralogy, moisture factor, smectite, topsoils.
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1071/SR00059 
N2  - The measurement of the specific surface area of soils may be useful for ranking soils in their ability to sorb polar compounds such as some pesticides and pollutants. For A horizons with varied mineralogy, particularly those containing large amounts of soil organic matter, this is problematic. We have estimated the surface area of a range of topsoils from water adsorption using the BET equation. The values obtained were greater than those measured from the adsorption of para-nitrophenol. There was a good relationship between the BET water area and the CEC of the samples (r2 = 0.83). There was a better relationship between the BET surface area and the water content of air-dry topsoils (r 2 = 0.98). We suggest that the air-dry water contents of topsoils could be used as a quick method to rank soils in order of their surface reactivity towards polar molecules, and this is preferable to more complicated methods. 
ER  -

