A simplified distillation-based sulfur speciation method for sulfidic soil materials

Speciation of inorganic sulfur species, mainly pyrite and metastable iron sulfides by operationally defined methods, is widely used for risk assessment of acid sulfate soils by quantifying the acidity producing elements, as well as for general characterisation of marine sediments and subaqueous soils. Traditional sulfur speciation methods commonly use highly specialised glassware which can be cumbersome for the operator, or, require long reaction times which limit the usability of the method. We present a simplified method which has a sufficiently low limit of detection (0.002%) and quantitation (0.006%) required for the analysis of sulfidic sulfur in acid sulfate soil materials. Commercially available sulfide reagents were used for determining reproducibility and the method was assessed on natural sulfidic soil materials, including fine to coarse grained soil materials as well as sulfide bearing peat, with a large variation of metastable sulfide and pyrite content.

Automated summary

The passage discusses a simplified method for speciation of sulfur species, which is widely used for risk assessment of acid sulfate soils and general characterization of marine sediments and subaqueous soils. The method has a low limit of detection and quantitation, making it suitable for analyzing sulfidic sulfur in various soil materials. Commercially available sulfide reagents were used for reproducibility testing on natural sulfidic soil materials with varying sulfide and pyrite content.