Sorption of trace quantities of cadmium by soils with different chemical and mineralogical composition

Cadmium sorption experiments were performed using four soil separates of different chemical and mineralogical composition, adding Cd solutions with initial concentrations ranging from 15 to 150 μg l^?1. At the soils pHs, the sorption isotherms were a mixture of a constant partition isotherm with a high affinity one. Also, more than 90% of the initially added Cd was sorbed by all four soils. These results indicate a high affinity of these soils for trace amounts of Cd. The effect of pH was, in general, to decrease the amount of sorbed Cd as the pH decreased. The sorption isotherms were linear at all pH's. Also, the data fitted the Freundlich's sorption isotherm in all cases, but not Langmuir's. Freundlich's k values were found to be a good index of the relative Cd sorption affinities of the four soils at all the pH's used. It was found that the structural and chemical nature of the soils sorbent complex was a more important parameter than the CEC when studying the sorption of these trace amounts of Cd by soils.