THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE DISTRIBUTION OF TRACE METALS AMONG THE OPERATIONALLY DEFINED SPECIATION PHASES OF A SEDIMENT

摘要

The use of a model based on Langmuir's isotherm to evaluate the metal associated with separate geochemical phases of a sediment is proposed and its validity tested with sediments of certified composition. The model takes into account a standard procedure for a certified reference material(CRM601), which defines, experimentally, a set of sequential extractions that divide the sediment into four operational fractions. The derived equations allow the treatment of data from sediment of Flumendosa Lake, Italy, and certified material CRM601 and also allow the computation of corrected concentrations, i.e., the metal affinities for each Fraction.