SO1100 (Principles of Soil Science Laboratory)

REPORT SHEET
Laboratory Activity 7
RESULTS

Ion Exchange Reaction Sequence

NH 4 NH 4
Ca2+¿ ¿ Ca 2+¿ ¿
+¿ +¿
¿ ¿

SOIL COLLOIDS + ¿¿ SOIL COLLOIDS

Ca2+¿ ¿ Ca2+¿ ¿ NH 4 +¿
¿ NH 4 +¿
¿

B. Ion Exchange (B) for Option B

 SO1100 (Principles of Soil Science-Laboratory)

DISCUSSION

There are two processes in which ions are exchanged in soil. The process
is called cation exchange if the cations are exchanged, and anion exchange if
the anions are exchanged. The first experiment is determining the cations
absorb by soil colloids using the Exchangeable Cation process, which is
explained in the video. It is accomplished by filling the soil with a large
amount of ammonium acetate solution, which replaces the cations with
ammonium ions. The attractions of the other cations have replaced them.
The displaced cations would be used to assess the cations are retained in the
soil by the cations exchange.
The second experiment involves saturating all of the exchange sites with
potassium cations to determine the soil's cations exchange ability, or CEC. It
is accomplished by displacing all of the initial cations and replacing them with
potassium ions at the exchange site. The soil is then rinsed with an
ammonium acetate solution to remove the excess potassium ions, which are
then replaced by ammonium ions. That's how we figure out how much cation
the soil is exchanging in total.

CONCLUSION
To sum up, the movement of cations and anions through soils is known as
ion exchange. In agriculture, the phenomenon of ion exchange is extremely
important. It has a major impact on the extraction of plant nutrients such as
calcium, potassium, and phosphorus. The composition of the interstitial liquid
available for plant feeding and responsible for crop growth and production is
heavily influenced by the ion-exchange properties of natural silicates found in
soils.

REFERENCES

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FL4ea28cb8