Rapid determination of soil cation exchange capacity using a cation exchange capacity pretreatment system and a Kjeldahl apparatus

The soil cation exchange capacity (CEC) refers to the total amount of various cations that can be absorbed by soil colloids. It is an important measure of the buffering capacity and fertilizer retention capacity of soil and is also an indicator that must be analyzed in soil environment assessment. The conventional ammonium acetate exchange method described in Chinese forestry standard LY/T 1243—1999 has been widely used in soil and agrochemical laboratories in China due to its high stability, buffering capacity, and repeatability. However, when applied to the batch analysis of soil, this conventional method is time-consuming and has other shortcomings such as cumbersome steps and low efficiency. Based on previous studies, this study optimized the conventional ammonium acetate exchange method in three steps, namely centrifugation, distillation, and titration. Specifically, samples were treated with displacement using mixed EDTA and ammonium acetate solution and cleaning with ethanol using the CEC pretreatment system. Then, the ammonium ions displaced were determined using an automatic Kjeldahl apparatus, followed by the calculation of the CEC. This study discussed the effects of the stirring time of ammonium acetate, ethanol dosage, and distillation time in the Kjeldahl apparatus on CEC determined. On this basis, this study comprehensively established and optimized the method for determining the CEC in soil using the CEC pretreatment system and the Kjeldahl apparatus. As shown by the experimental results, under the optimal conditions of displacement time, ethanol dosage, and distillation time, the optimized method determined the CEC of a batch of samples (100) in only 8 h, which was shortened by nearly 85% compared with the conventional method, thus greatly improving the efficiency. As verified using the certified reference material for the chemical composition of first-grade soil, the determined CEC values agreed with the certified values, with relative standard deviations (n = 6) of all less than 2%. The optimized method is characterized by high efficiency and simple operation and can greatly reduce possible errors caused by manual operation and improve the accuracy of results. Therefore, it is applicable to the bulk determination of soil CEC.