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The Ethylene Glycol Monoethyl Ether (EGME) Technique for Determining Soil-Surface Area

Heilman, M.D. and Carter, D.L. and Gonzales, C.L. (1965) The Ethylene Glycol Monoethyl Ether (EGME) Technique for Determining Soil-Surface Area. Soil Science. 100(6):409-413.

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Abstract

Total surface area is an important fundamental
soil property. This property is measured
to estimate the proportion of lattice expandable
layer silicates in soils and to assess soil physical
and chemical properties. Dyal and Hendricks
(4) introduced a method for measuring surface
area of layer silicates. This method was modified
and adapted to soils by Bower and
Gschwend (1). Subsequently, Martin (5) proposed
a modification of the Dyal and Hendricks
method (4) for layer silicates. His modification
included a source of free ethylene glycol in the
evacuated desiccator to control the vapor pressure
of ethylene glycol at the mineral sorption
surfaces. Bower and Goertzen (2) modified the
method proposed by Martin (5) and adapted it
for measuring soil surface area. This latter
method is considered to be an equilibrium
method (2) and is widely used today. A similar
but more complex method was introduced by
Sor and Kemper (7). All these methods utilize
ethylene glycol, a highly polar molecule, as the
absorbed phase. They all have the common disadvantage
of being very time-consuming.

Item Type: Article
NWISRL Publication Number: 0036
Subjects: Research methodology
Mass Import - autoclassified (may be erroneous)
Depositing User: Dan Stieneke
Date Deposited: 20 Nov 2010 21:51
Last Modified: 15 Mar 2017 22:49
Item ID: 315
URI: https://eprints.nwisrl.ars.usda.gov/id/eprint/315