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Use of scaling to quantify variability of heavy metal sorption isotherms
Author(s) -
BÖTTCHER J.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
european journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 1351-0754
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1997.tb00204.x
Subject(s) - sorption , scaling , chemistry , similarity (geometry) , thermodynamics , scale (ratio) , environmental chemistry , soil science , environmental science , mathematics , adsorption , physics , computer science , geometry , artificial intelligence , image (mathematics) , quantum mechanics
Summary Sorption isotherms of heavy metals in soil often vary strongly from place to place in the field. Scaling might be useful to quantify the variability of such functional relations. Application of scaling to sorption isotherms requires a rule. In this paper the derivation of a scaling rule for sorption isotherms, based on a hypothesis of 'sorption similarity’, and its application to cadmium sorption isotherms measured in 25 fields on sandy soils are reported. Scale factors are calculated by least squares procedures. Scaling reduced the variation of the Cd isotherms, expressed as sum of squares about an average, by about 86%, preserving the variation through the calculated scale factors. Scaling of sorption isotherms requires no specific equation to fit the sorption data. The aforementioned average should be calculated as scale mean because of the theoretical stringency of this approach.