Abstract
Purpose
Development of new binding gels for rapid and simultaneous quantification of bioavailability concentrations of various heavy metals in soils by diffusive gradients in thin film technique.
Methods
Four binding gels including zinc-aluminum hydrogel (ZnAl-LDH), ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid intercalated zinc-aluminum hydrogel (ZnAl-EDTA-LDHs), polyglutamic acid (PGA), and polyglutamic acid–sodium alginate resin (SA-PGA) were prepared and used for the simultaneous measurement of Cr, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb.
Results
The adsorption process reached equilibrium in 2 h, which could be considered a pseudo-second-order reaction. Three mol L−1 nitric acid was the best eluent with elution efficiency over 91% for the five heavy metals. Then, SA-PGA gel was assembled into DGT device (SA-PGA-DGT). Its performance was virtually unaffected by pH (5–9), ionic strength (1–50 mM), and soil properties with adsorption capacities 5.02 μg cm−2, 11.38 μg cm−2, 8.16 μg cm−2, 17.11 μg cm−2, and 89.43 μg cm−2 for Cr, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb, respectively. A good linear correlation was observed between the concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Cd, and Pb determined by SA-PGA-DGT in soil samples from Tanggu District in China and the exchangeable contents of the five metals determined by the Tessier method, with R values of 0.64, 0.63, 0.59, 0.72, and 0.64 (p < 0.01).
Conclusion
SA-PGA gel exhibited the best adsorption properties among the four gels. SA-PGA-DGT can be used as a reliable tool for rapid and simultaneous quantification of bioavailability concentrations of multiple heavy metals.
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Funding
This work was supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC0706000) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51808031).
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Rui Chen conceived and designed the experiments. Jiaxing Liu performed experiments and wrote the manuscript. Guoyu Ding performed the statistical analysis. Fumin Ren and Rongguang Shi performed the chemical analysis. Jungang Lv and Jing Cheng provided technical and editorial assistance. All authors have made corresponding contributions to this work and determined the order of authors.
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Chen, R., Liu, J., Ding, G. et al. Simultaneous measurement of multiple labile heavy metals in soils by diffusive gradients in thin film technique. J Soils Sediments 23, 958–972 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03346-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03346-1