[Chlorine speciation and concentration in cultivated soil in the northeastern China studied by X-ray absorption near...

A procedure has been proposed to determine chlorine speciation and concentration in soil with X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES), and this method was applied to study the cultivated soil (bog, dark brown and black cultivated soil) in the Northeastern China. Qualitative analysis was carried out by least-squares fitting of sample spectra with standard spectra of three model compounds (NaCl, 3-chloropropionic acid, chlorophenol red). Linear correlation between the absolute fluorescence intensity of a series of NaCl standards and the Cl concentration was used as quantification standard for measuring the total Cl concentration in samples. The detection limits,relative standard deviation (RSD), recoveries were 2 mg · kg(-1), 0%-5% and 77%-133%, respectively. The average concentration of total Cl was 19 mg · kg(-1). The average relative content was as high as 61% of organochlorine with the concentration of 1-2 times as high as the concentration of inorganic chloride. The distribution trend of the total Cl, inorganic chloride and organic chlorine in different types of soil was: bog arable soil > dark brown soil > black soil. In conclusion, XANES is a reliable method to nondestructively characterize the speciation and concentration of chlorine in soil, which would provide some basic data for the future study of the chlorine's biogeochemical transformations.