Abstract
In this work, hydrothermal leaching was applied to simulated soils (clay minerals vermiculite, montmorillonite, and kaolinite) and actual soils (Terunuma, Japan) to generate organic acids with the objective to develop an additive-free screening method for determination of Sr in soil. Stable strontium (SrCl2) was adsorbed onto soils for the study, and ten organic acids (citric, L(+)-tartaric, succinic, oxalic, pyruvic, formic, glycolic, lactic, acetic, and propionic) were evaluated for leaching Sr from simulated soils under hydrothermal conditions (120 °C to 200 °C) at concentrations up to 0.3 M. For strontium-adsorbed vermiculite (Sr-V), 0.1 M citric acid was found to be effective for leaching Sr at 150 °C and 1 h treatment time. Based on these results, the formation of organic acids from organic matter in Terunuma soil was studied. Hydrothermal treatment of Terunuma soil produced a maximum amount of organic acids at 200 °C and 0.5 h reaction time. To confirm the possibility for leaching of Sr from Terunuma soil, strontium-adsorbed Terunuma soil (Sr-S) was studied. For Sr-S, hydrothermal treatment at 200 °C for 0.5 h reaction time allowed 40% of the Sr to be leached at room temperature, thus demonstrating an additive-free method for screening of Sr in soil. The additive-free hydrothermal leaching method avoids calcination of solids in the first step of chemical analysis and has application to both routine monitoring of metals in soils and to emergency situations.
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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its Supplementary information files.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank Dr. Jun Koarashi (JAEA) for discussion, Professor Tomoyuki Makino (Tohoku University) for measurement of the CEC value of Terunuma soil along with helpful discussion, and Mr. Kotaro Oshima (Tohoku University) for assistance with the sedimentation velocity profile measurements.
Funding
This work (M.N.) was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K18323.
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Contributions
Takuma Kato: conceptualization, data curation, investigation, formal analysis, writing—original draft, visualization.
Mika Nagaoka: conceptualization, resources, project administration, funding, writing—reviewing and editing.
Haixin Guo: supervision, methodology, formal analysis, writing—reviewing and editing.
Hiroki Fujita: supervision, writing—reviewing and editing.
Taku Michael Aida: writing—review and editing.
Richard Lee Smith Jr: conceptualization, formal analysis, supervision, methodology, project administration, writing–reviewing and editing.
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Highlights
• Sr screening method for simulated soils and actual (Terunuma, Japan) soils.
• Organic acids generated in 30 min at 200 °C from soil under hydrothermal conditions.
• Generated organic acids leach sufficient Sr from soils at room temperature
• About 40% Sr leached from soil; protocol robust for interferring Mg, Fe, Al, or Si ions.
• Method has potential application to routine analyses and to emergency situations.
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Kato, T., Nagaoka, M., Guo, H. et al. Additive-free hydrothermal leaching method with low environmental burden for screening of strontium in soil. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 55725–55735 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14916-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-14916-0