Study of the desorption of linuron from soils to water enhanced by the addition of an anionic surfactant to soil–water system

The influence of the addition of the anionic surfactant sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) to the soil–water–linuron system in the herbicide desorption from soils with different organic matter (OM) content to water have been studied. SDS was used at critical micelle concentrations (cmc) of 0.75, 1.50, 5 and 10. The adsorption–desorption isotherms of linuron in aqueous medium and in SDS solutions at concentration of 0.75 cmc fitted the Freundlich adsorption equation for all the soils studied. When the SDS concentration was 1.50 cmc only the desorption isotherms for the soils with OM content <5.40% fit this equation and was not fulfilled by any of the soils when the SDS concentration was 5 or 10 cmc. All the desorption isotherms displayed hysteresis, the hysteresis coefficients of the desorption isotherms in SDS solutions always being lower than those of the desorption isotherms in water. The efficiency coefficients, defined as the relationship between the percentages of linuron desorbed in SDS solution and the percentages of linuron desorbed in water, range from 1.02 to 2.41 in the soil with the lowest OM content, and from 1.91 to 17.1 in the soil with the highest OM content. The results obtained indicate the enhancement of linuron desorption by the addition of SDS surfactant to soil–water system. The efficiency of SDS is seen as from surfactant concentrations below the cmc and varies with the surfactant concentration and with the soil OM content.