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Updated: Jan 28, 2026

Two-Dimensional Visualization and Quantification of Labile, Inorganic Plant Nutrients and Contaminants in Soil
Published on: September 1, 2020
Combining diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) and spectroscopic techniques for the determination of phosphorus
Christian Vogel1, Ryo Sekine2, Daniel Steckenmesser3
1Division 4.4 Thermochemical Residues Treatment and Resource Recovery, Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (BAM), Unter den Eichen 87, 12205, Berlin, Germany.
Abstract:
A wide range of methods are used to estimate the plant-availability of soil phosphorus (P). Published research has shown that the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique has a superior correlation to plant-available P in soils compared to standard chemical extraction tests. In order to identify the plant-available soil P species, we combined DGT with infrared and P K- and L2,3-edge X-ray adsorption near-edge structure (XANES) spectroscopy. This was achieved by spectroscopically investigating the dried binding layer of DGT devices after soil deployment. All three spectroscopic methods were able to distinguish between different kinds of phosphates (poly-, trimeta-, pyro- and orthophosphate) on the DGT binding layer. However, infrared spectroscopy was most sensitive to distinguish between different types of adsorbed inorganic and organic phosphates. Furthermore, intermediates of the time-resolved hydrolysis of trimetaphosphate in soil could be analyzed.
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