Heavy metals are found naturally in soils at low concentrations, but their content may be increased by human activity, making them one of the barriers in management of tropical soils. These chemical elements can be found in the composition of organic and inorganic fertilizers, insecticides, fungicides, mine tailings, and urban waste, and may cause serious damage to the environment and human health. Thus, adsorption studies are essential in assessing the behavior of heavy metals in the soil. The objective of […]

Copper and zinc adsorption is one of the main phenomena controlling the availability of these metals to plants. As a consequence, studies on the adsorption of such elements in soils may be useful tools to understand the relationship between soil characteristics and retention of these micronutrients. The present study examined the adsorption of copper and zinc in six Latosols (Oxisols) with a wide range of chemical properties. Solutions containing different Cu and Zn concentrations (0, 10, 20, 40, 60, 80, […]

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the parameters from isotherms of Freundlich and Langmüir that best reflect the adsorption of heavy metals in weathered soils, and to identify the relationship between the selected parameters and the chemical, physical and mineralogical attributes of twelve representative soil classes from Brazil.The soils were collected by EMBRAPA-CNPS during various surveys in the Southern, Southeastern and Northern areas of Brazil.The correlation coefficient among dependent variables, obtained through the isotherms of adsorption (parameters of […]

Tebuthiuron adsorption was determined in samples from 0-10 to 10-20 cm layers of three soils from the county of Ribeirão Preto (SP)-Brazil: Quartzarenic Neosol (Entisol), Red Latosol dystrofic and Red Latosol dystroferric (Oxisols). Sorption data were obtained by batch equilibrium and fitted to four adsorption models: Freundlich, linear, Langmuir and Lambert. Several statistical criteria were applied for selection among these isotherms. Freundlich model showed the best fit to the data. Kd values ranged from 0.723 to 2.573 L kg-1, and […]