Chapter 7 Soil and Contaminant Interaction

Abdel-Mohsen Onsy Mohamed
Evan K. Paleologos

Document Type

Book Chapter

Source of Publication

Fundamentals of Geoenvironmental Engineering

Publication Date

1-1-2018

Abstract

This chapter provides details of the complex interactions of the soil constituents and the chemicals that may exist in situ or find their way into a soil. These interactions have important implications for studies and predictions of the movement of contaminants in the subsurface environment as adsorption and other soil-contaminant binding mechanisms may affect the hydraulic conductivity of a geologic medium. Whereas the binding of chemicals on soils solid surfaces may render groundwater remediation techniques ineffective, other chemical and biological processes can provide natural attenuation of contaminated sites. The chapter begins with the commonly used methods to determine the amount of a solute bound by matrix surfaces by Freundich and Langmuir isotherms, together with a discussion of the S-, L-, H-, C-curve isotherms, as well as more advanced descriptions of multicomponent adsorption. Subsequently, the theories by Gouy-Chapman and Stern are presented together with detailed calculations of the electrical charges on the surface of clays, in the Stern layer and the diffuse layer. A brief introduction of first- and second-order kinetics is presented, followed by a detailed exposition of metal cation adsorption, organic contaminant-soil interaction, and of the biological processes that may lead to natural attenuation.

Publisher

Elsevier

Volume

Environ. Sci. Technol. 20 1986

First Page

205

Last Page

237

Disciplines

Environmental Engineering

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

no

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