Cation Exchange Essay

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Cation exchange relates to a positively charged ion(known as a cation) and its ability to be transfered from one molecule to another thus forming a bond. There is a measurement of the ability of a soil to do this and it is known as Cation Exchange Capacity(CEC). We tested the ability of different soils to do this within our lab. One was with the CEC experiment, the floculation experiment, and the physical properties of clay. The CEC experiment tested the CEC of three different soils which were Drummer, Cisne, and Sand. The experiment was performed in a couple steps. First the soils were washed in ammonium acetate and then rinsed with alcohol. The soil was then placed in a jar containing KCL, followed by 1 scoop of MgO powder. Boric acid was then placed in a small dish that was suspended above the soil and solution. After a hour and a half of the borric acid being suspended in the sealed jar with the soil, the boric acid was then titrated. With the amount of mL required for titration, we were then able to calculate the CEC of the soils.Drummer required 6.7 mL to be titrated. Cisne required 1.6 mL to be titrated and the sand required 0.1 mL. We then determined the CEC by using the Calculation of 200*N*V. The results of CEC for the different soils were as follows; 26.8 for drummer, 6.4 for Cisne, and 0.4 for Sand. This shows that drummer is least likely to let things leach threw it. Where sand has the lowest CEC so it is most likely to let things pass threw with out cation exchange. The next experiment performed was to test floculation. In this experiment we had one common clay dispersed into 5 test tubes. Different solutions were then added to the test tubes to see how they reacted. The solutions used were KCL, NaCL, CaCL2, ALCl3, and distilled water. The order of floculation seen was as follows; most being AlC3, 2nd most was CaCl2, next was NaCl, then KCL, and no

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