chemrox - 29-1-2013 at 15:43
THIS IS WORK RELATED!
I'm removing the organic material from soil using H2SO4/KMnO4 instead of chromic acid for environmental reasons. I could use chromic and reduce the
Cr6 before disposal but I feel KMnO4 might be greener and cheaper. I'd like comments from anyone who has tackled this problem in the past.
bob800 - 29-1-2013 at 16:49
Not sure if this will work on your scale, but there is a Scientific American article on the construction of a miniature furnace which can be used to
"burn away" the organic matter into CO2:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-furnace-i...
Organics analysis or stripping?
Xenon1898 - 29-1-2013 at 21:09
What is the purpose for this reaction? I have a good resource for this and could look it up if I knew what analysis you are working on.
Ash it if you can
Xenon1898 - 29-1-2013 at 21:56
Okay I looked in my book titled "Laboratory Guide for Conducting Soil Tests and Plant Analysis", (J. Benton Jones, Jr. for credit) - for determining
organic content it only shows chromates for the wet chemistry. The other competing method compares favorably, which is Loss on Ignition. Dry the
sample in a drying oven for 4 hours, then ash for 4 hours in a muffle furnace. Calculate the % OM with a weight difference, simple.
I suppose you could try to develop the other method with known standards.... but no mention of it in this book, sorry.
(this is a CRC Press book printed in 2001, so it should be reasonably aware of environmental concerns, so you would think it would mention alternative
methods that are more environmentally friendly - it does for other things like washing glassware and so on).
[Edited on 30-1-2013 by Xenon1898]
feacetech - 30-1-2013 at 19:16
calcining is easiest
however if you want to compare the results to older results it wont be apples with apples
The same will hold true if you change your chemical oxidation
unless you do a comparison study
[Edited on 31-1-2013 by feacetech]
chemrox - 30-1-2013 at 21:39
@Xenon- definition of "muck" is based on organic content and has significance in determination of hydric soils. In close situations a hand lens
analysis may not be sufficiently precise.
yoshiharu198 - 31-1-2013 at 04:08
i think your content is sufficient for your reaction