STUDIES ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MERCURY ADSORPTION TO THREE TYPES OF SOIL IN SOUTH CHINA

Mercury adsorption was conducted with Ca saturated soils and in 0 005mol/L CaCl 2 solution.The results of mercury adsorption to three types of soils developed from different parent materials were fitted to three isothermal adsorption equations, i.e., Langmuir,Freundlich,Temkin,respectively,among which Langmuir and Freundlich equation were better fitted.The constants of each equation calculated from the experimental data could indication well the characteristics of soil sadsorption.The adsorption rate varied greatly among the three types of soils. The results indicated that the kinetics of mercury adsorption could be fitted to the first order chemical kinetic equation: C=C oe -Kt . The adsorption of mercury decreased as temperature and acidity of the system increased.