Determination of carbon-bonded sulfur in soils by hydriodic acid reduction and hydrogen peroxide oxidation

Abstract

A sequential extraction method has been developed for the determination of carbon-bonded sulfur in soils. The soil sample has been sequentially reduced with HI and oxidized with hydrogen peroxide, and finally the residue has been digested with a mixture of nitric acid and perchloric acid. All inorganic sulfur components and ester sulfur has been reduced to H₂S by HI except the unreducible sulfur including pyritic sulfur, carbon-bonded sulfur and a previously unidentified sulfur fraction. Whereas a part of the carbon-bonded sulfur has been dissolved in the HI reducing solution another part of carbon-bonded sulfur was removed by hydrogen peroxide oxidation. The total carbon-bonded sulfur compose for oxic soils of the HI-dissolved sulfur and the H₂O₂-oxidized sulfur. However, because the pyritic sulfur can be completely decomposed by H₂O₂, this form of sulfur should be subtracted from the sum of the two sulfur fractions in case of anoxic soils. Unidentified sulfur components were also detected in the residue after the sequential extraction.