Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 42877 |
| Journal | Scientific reports |
| Volume | 7 |
| Publication status | Published - 17 Feb 2017 |
Abstract
Soil wettability (quantified in terms of contact angle, CA) is crucial for physical, chemical, and biological soil functioning. As the CA is determined by components present within the outmost nanometer of particles, this study applied X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with a maximum analysis depth of 10 nm to test the relationship between CA and surface elemental composition, using soil samples from a chronosequence where CA increased from 0° (0 yrs) to about 98° (120 yrs). Concurrently, as seen by XPS, C and N content increased and the content of O and the mineral-derived cations (Si, Al, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe) decreased. The C content was positively correlated with CA and least squares fitting indicated increasing amounts of non-polar C species with soil age. The contents of O and the mineral-derived cations were negatively correlated with CA, suggesting an increasing organic coating of the minerals that progressively masked the underlying mineral phase. The atomic O/C ratio was found to show a close negative relationship with CA, which applied as well to further sample sets of different texture and origin. This suggests the surface O/C ratio to be a general parameter linking surface wettability and surface elemental composition.
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In: Scientific reports, Vol. 7, 42877, 17.02.2017.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Soil wettability can be explained by the chemical composition of particle interfaces - An XPS study
AU - Woche, Susanne K.
AU - Goebel, Marc O.
AU - Mikutta, Robert
AU - Schurig, Christian
AU - Kaestner, Matthias
AU - Guggenberger, Georg
AU - Bachmann, Jörg
PY - 2017/2/17
Y1 - 2017/2/17
N2 - Soil wettability (quantified in terms of contact angle, CA) is crucial for physical, chemical, and biological soil functioning. As the CA is determined by components present within the outmost nanometer of particles, this study applied X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with a maximum analysis depth of 10 nm to test the relationship between CA and surface elemental composition, using soil samples from a chronosequence where CA increased from 0° (0 yrs) to about 98° (120 yrs). Concurrently, as seen by XPS, C and N content increased and the content of O and the mineral-derived cations (Si, Al, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe) decreased. The C content was positively correlated with CA and least squares fitting indicated increasing amounts of non-polar C species with soil age. The contents of O and the mineral-derived cations were negatively correlated with CA, suggesting an increasing organic coating of the minerals that progressively masked the underlying mineral phase. The atomic O/C ratio was found to show a close negative relationship with CA, which applied as well to further sample sets of different texture and origin. This suggests the surface O/C ratio to be a general parameter linking surface wettability and surface elemental composition.
AB - Soil wettability (quantified in terms of contact angle, CA) is crucial for physical, chemical, and biological soil functioning. As the CA is determined by components present within the outmost nanometer of particles, this study applied X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) with a maximum analysis depth of 10 nm to test the relationship between CA and surface elemental composition, using soil samples from a chronosequence where CA increased from 0° (0 yrs) to about 98° (120 yrs). Concurrently, as seen by XPS, C and N content increased and the content of O and the mineral-derived cations (Si, Al, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Fe) decreased. The C content was positively correlated with CA and least squares fitting indicated increasing amounts of non-polar C species with soil age. The contents of O and the mineral-derived cations were negatively correlated with CA, suggesting an increasing organic coating of the minerals that progressively masked the underlying mineral phase. The atomic O/C ratio was found to show a close negative relationship with CA, which applied as well to further sample sets of different texture and origin. This suggests the surface O/C ratio to be a general parameter linking surface wettability and surface elemental composition.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013192451&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/srep42877
DO - 10.1038/srep42877
M3 - Article
C2 - 28211469
AN - SCOPUS:85013192451
VL - 7
JO - Scientific reports
JF - Scientific reports
SN - 2045-2322
M1 - 42877
ER -