THE USE OF ADSORPTION EQUATIONS TO DESCRIBE COPPER COMPLEXING BY HUMIFIED ORGANIC MATTER

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Abstract
Summary: Samples of humified organic matter were extracted from several sources by water or alkali, and divided into colloidal and dialysable fractions. The variation of the concentration of complexed copper with that of added copper was determined for these fractions using a cupric ion‐sensitive electrode. A computer program fitted five equations often used to describe adsorption of ions on soil surfaces to the results. The data did not fit Langmuir or Temkin equations very well, probably because of the heterogeneity of adsorption sites of the organic matter; they fitted double Langmuir, Gunary and Freundlich equations almost equally well, leaving very small residual sums of squares. The Freundlich isotherm is preferred as it has only two parameters and the values of these are fairly stable to changes in the range of copper concentrations considered, or to doubling of the complexant concentration.