DETERMINATION OF CATIONIC AND ANIONIC SURFACTANT CONCENTRATIONS IN SOIL

Recently, surfactants have been given serious consideration with respe ct to their potential use in environmental remediation, Proposed in si tu clean-up efforts focus on utilizing surfactants to solubilize/emuls ify organic contaminants or to desorb heavy metals, Anionic surfactant s are the type most likely to be used for removal of organics, whereas cationic surfactants may have application for displacement and mobili zation of heavy metals, Research within this field often requires dete rmination of anionic and cationic surfactant concentrations in soil, T his paper details a study through which simple and effective extractio n procedures were established for use in conjunction with two differen t surfactant chemical analysis methods, Surfactant extraction is accom plished in two steps. First, a sodium chloride solution is used to red uce electrostatic soil/surfactant attractions and precipitation, and s econd, acetone is added to minimize hydrophobic adsorption, The extrac tant solution was diluted, followed by colorimetric chemical analysis using a spectrophotometer. The extraction effectiveness of these proce dures was found to be near 100% for both cationic and anionic surfacta nts.