Experimental Research on Atrazine Sorption and Degradation in Soils

Sorption and degradation behaviors of atrazine were investigated with both batch experiments and soil column experiments. Batch experiments were performed with large amount of small soil samples to get sorption and degradation parameters. The measured breakthrough curves from columns were fitted with CXTFIT model for the same purpose. The high mobility and long persistence of atrazine indicated by experiment results confirm that atrazine application may cause potential groundwater pollution. It was found that the obtained sorption parameters from the column experiments were quite similar to the means of the values obtained from the batch equilibrium experiments, while the degradation parameters obtained from the column experiments were slightly higher than those of the batch degradation experiments. The minor difference may due to the continuous supply with oxygen-riched solution in the column experiments. These results suggest that sorption and degradation behaviours in both experiments can be in good agreement given the experimental conditions are well controlled.