Abstract
This chapter discusses the potential artifacts in sorption studies with trace elements. Sources of artifacts are associated to the separation procedures utilized. Filtration and centrifugation are the most widely used methods to separate “solid” and “dissolved” phases. This separation is an operational one as natural suspensions and sediments are made of a “continuum” of the particle sizes. Colloidal particles with diameter <1 μm are accounted for the “dissolved” fraction as they tend to pass through the pores of conventional filters. The amount of trace elements associated with colloidal matter is significant. Overestimation of the dissolved fraction poses a major source of error in the sorption studies with environmental samples and is one of the causes of the different distribution coefficients obtained at varying concentration of sorbent particles in suspensions. The entrapping of solute in the interstices of the solid phase separated by centrifugation is also a source of error. The chapter also reviews the field-flow fractionation, which is a very useful technique in separation studies but the main drawback of this technique is the cost of the equipment required.
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