Competitive adsorption behavior of selected heavy metals in three soil types of India amended with fly ash and sewage sludge

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Laboratory batch experiments were carried out to study the competitive sorption behavior of metals in three types of Indian soils, differing in their physicochemical properties: acid laterite (SL1), red alfisol (SL2) and black vertisol (SL3) treated with different proportions of fly ash and sewage sludge mixture. Representative samples were equilibrated with 10 to 200 µM L-1 concentrations of metals simultaneously containing Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in 5 mM of Ca(NO3)2 solution. In most of the cases the affinity sequence of metals was Pb>Cu>Zn>Ni>Cd based on their amount of sorption, which varied little with either metal equilibrating concentrations or the soil/mixture type. The observed metal affinity sequences in different soils amended with mixtures were compared to the predicted affinity sequences based on metal properties and a good match was found with those predicted by metal hydrolysis constants. This indicated that formation and subsequent sorption of metal hydrolysis products on soil surface is the predominant mechanism for sorption. In all the cases, Pb and Cu showed higher affinity followed by Zn, Ni or Cd. The increase in the metal additions further enhanced the competition among metals for exchange sites. Adsorption isotherms showed that metal sorption was linearly related to its concentration in the equilibrium solution. The distribution coefficients (KD) computed from the slopes of linear regression for different metals were higher in SL3 than in both SL2 and SL1. All the mixture amended soils produced higher KD values than their respective controls. Selectivity between metals resulted in the following affinities based on their KD values—Pb>Cu>Zn>Ni or Cd—which was in line with the value of the hydrolysis constant of the metals under study.