May 2015 Vol.3 No.5

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Original Research Article

Efficiencies of Acid Digestion/Leaching Techniques in the Determination of Iron Concentrations in Soils from Challawa Industrial Estate Kano, Nigeria

Isa Baba Koki

Department of Chemistry, Northwest University Kano, Nigeria

Email: isakoki@yahoo.com
Tel: +2348039092875

Accepted August 29, 2014

Abstract

For most analytical techniques, it is necessary to destroy the collected material by wet oxidation. Wet oxidation (Digestion) procedures require only simple apparatus and are not subject to significant losses of elements by volatilization or adsorption onto container surfaces. Rigorous digestion procedures are required to solubilize the metals in the soil sample. Soil leaching technique also extracts metals and other soluble constituents from the soil by dissolving them in a liquid phase. The results for the efficiencies of two digestion methods were then compared to soil leaching technique. Solutions obtained by these methods were analyzed for Iron concentrations using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer. The Iron concentrations were (1165 to 2542) µgg^-1 for soil digestion using Conc. HCl and HNO₃, tri acid digestion using Conc. Hf, HClO₄ and HNO₃ gives Iron concentrations of (1305 to 2700) µgg^-1 while Iron concentration of (102 to 336) µgg^-1 is for soil leaching technique using Conc. HCl, suggesting that tri Acid digestion technique gives higher Iron concentrations in the soil samples analyzed than soil leaching technique.

Keywords: Digestion, Leaching, Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer, Iron, Soil, Acid