Effect of Different Iron Minerals on Bioaccessibility of Soil Arsenic Using in vitro Methods

Abstract

To explore the effects of different iron minerals on soil arsenic bioaccessibility, ferrihydrite, goethite and hematite were used in PBET, SBRC and IVG in-vitro experiments in this study. The relationship between arsenic bioavailability in gastric, small intestinal phases and arsenic speciation was also studied. The results showed that when 1% ferrihydrite was added, arsenic bioavailability in gastric phase was 2.22%, 5.11% and 7.43% by PBET, SBRC and IVG methods, respectively, while in the small intestinal phase it was 3.39%, 2.33% and 6.18%. At an elevated ferrihydrite dosage of 2%, significant difference in arsenic bioavailability was observed in both phases (P<0.05). According to in vitro experiments, the addition of the same amount of different iron minerals had contributed to the decrease in arsenic bioavailability to varying extents in contrast with the blank group, in the descending order of ferrihydrite(F1) > goethite(G1) > hematite(H1) (F2 > G2 > H2). Total arsenic in exchangeable (F1) and specifically sorbed (F2) state was found positively correlated with arsenic bioavailability in gastric phase by PBET, SBRC and IVG methods, the correlation coefficient of which being r=0.93, P=0.002, r=0.90, P=0.004 and r=0.89,P=0.006, respectively. It was also found that arsenic bioavailability in gastric phase was positively correlated with total arsenic in F1 and F2 states by PBET(r=0.94,P=0.001) and IVG (r=0.87,P=0.009) methods, but no significant correlation was observed by SBRC method. Additionally, three in vitro experiments showed that amorphous iron bound arsenic had significant negative correlation with arsenic bioavailability in gastric phase and small intestinal phase, except that no correlation was found in small intestinal phase by SBRC method.