Chemistry of inorganic arsenic in soils: kinetics of arsenic adsorption–desorption

The influence of ionic strength, index cations and competing anions on arsenate (As^V) adsorption–desorption kinetics was studied in an Alfisol soil. A flow-through reactor system similar to that developed by Carski and Sparks (Soil Sci Soc Am J 49:1114–1116, 1985) was constructed for the experiments. Arsenate adsorption kinetics for all the treatments were initially fast with 58–91% of As^V adsorbed in the first 15 min. Beyond 15 min, As^V adsorption continued at a slower rate for the observation period of the experiments. Changes in the solution composition had differing effects on the cumulative amount of As^V adsorbed by the soil. Ionic strength and different index cations had little effect on the amount of As^V adsorbed, while the presence of phosphate decreased the amount of As^V adsorbed from 169 to 89 and 177 to 115 g As^V μg⁻¹ in 0.03 M sodium nitrate and 0.01 M calcium nitrate, respectively. Considerably less As^V was desorbed than was adsorbed, with only between 2 to 17% of the adsorbed As^V desorbed. The presence of phosphate increased the amount of As^V desorbed by 17%, but other changes in the solution ionic strength or index cation had little effect on the amount of As^V desorbed.