DETERMINATION OF SULFUR IN SOIL

(Turbidimetric Method)

Determination of available the soil sulfur became an ordinary analysis in soil fertility evaluation
programs. The available sulfur is extracted from the soil by extracting solution of Ca(H2PO4)2.
Sulfur is determined after subsequent oxidation of S to SO4 and then precipitated in form of BaSO4.
Precipitated barium sulphate is then determined by turbidimetric method.

Reagents:

1. Extracting solution, 500 ppm P. Dissolve 2.02 g of Ca(H2PO4)2. H2O in 1L of distilled

water.
2. Bariun chloride solution, 10%. Dissolve 10 g of BaCl2 in distilled water and make up the
volume to 100 ml.
3. Gum acacia. Weigh 0.5 g of gum acacia in a mixture of 25 ml of glacial acetic acid and
25 ml of distilled water. (Note: Gum acacia may be changed for 1% Starch gel as
described above. See p. 41.)
4. Standard sulphur stock solution, 100 ppm. Dissolve 0.5434 g of K2SO4 in distilled water
in a 1L volumetric flask and make up volume to 1 L.
5. Standard sulphur working solutions: Prepare 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8 ppm standard S
working solutions by pipetting 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0, and 8.0 ml of 100 ppm standard S
stock solution in seven 100 ml volumetric flasks and make up volume with distilled
water.

Procedure:

1. Weigh 10 g of air-dried soil in a 150 ml Erlenmeyer flask.

2. Add 50 ml of extracting solution.
3. Shake for 30 min. and filter through whatman No. 5 or equivalent filter paper.
4. Pipette 10 ml of aliquot in a test tube.
5. Add 1 ml of gum acacia.
6. Add 1 ml of 6 N HCl.
7. Add 0.5 of BaCl2 solution. Let the mixture stand for 2 min. and shake the tube in a test
tube shaker.
8. Prepare a standard curve by placing 10 ml of each 0, 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, 4.0 and 8.0 ppm S
standard solution into seven test tubes. Add 1 ml of Gum acacia, 1 ml of 6 N HCl and 0.5
ml of BaCl2 solution. Let the mixture stand for 2 min. and shake the tubes in a test tube
shaker. If the turbidity is low is low, add 1 ml of 10 ppm S seed solution in both standard
and the soil sample extract.
9. Read the standard solutions and the sample extract after 5 min in spectrophotometer on a
wavelength of 420 nm.
10. Draw a standard curve by plotting the absorbance readings against the S standard
concentrations and find out the S content of the extract from the curve.
11. Run a blank determination simultaneously.

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Calculation:

S, ppm in soil = S, ppm (found from the curve)*DF.

Note: Availability index (SO4-S): Low – < 8 ppm; Medium –9–16 ppm; Optimum – 17–32 ppm.

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