Professional Documents
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Prepared by:
Yuzamri Mohd Yusoff
Soil colloid
Relative
Ion Atomic mass Charge cmol weight
g g/cmol-1
Al+3 27 +3 0.09
Ca+2 40 +2 0.20
Cl-1 35 -1 0.35
CO-2 60 -2 0.30
H+3 1 +1 0.01
K+ 39 +1 0.39
Mg+2 24 +2 0.12
Na+ 23 +1 0.23
NH4- + 18 +1 0.18
NO3-2 62 -1 0.62
SO4 96 -2 0.48
ZN+2 65 +2 0.32.5
• Cation exchange is a phenomena
which is constantly going in soils and
is of great importance.
• Without some mechanism to
temporarily hold cations in the soil,
plants would be unable to obtain
sufficient quantities of the essential
nutrients to grow.
• Without cation exchange, the nutrients
would simply be leached downward in the
soil and lost. Cation exchange plays a role
in other soil processes as well
• Acidification is the process of exchanging
basic cations, such as Ca+2, Mg+2, K+,
and Na+, for acidic cations, such as H+
and A1+3. Liming acid soils results in a
reversal of this process, H+ ions are
exchanged for Ca+2 ions. If cationic
fertilizer nutrients are not held by the soil
colloids, the nutrients would be lost to
percolation water.
Figure 7.1. Cation exchange
between soil colloids and the soil
solution.