Partitioning model of the adsorption of explosives from soils to determine its environmental fate

The purpose of this research was to identify the principal soil characteristics that influence the adsorption of munitions constituents (MC) of explosives in soils, through a partitioning model to determine the fate of the explosives. To do that, batch experiments near 1: 1 (w/v) soil to solution ratios reflecting field conditions were conducted using a mixture of HMX, RDX, nitroglycerine (NG), nitroguanidine (NQ), TNT and 2,4-dinitrotoluene as MC, where the mix of MC was adsorbed in twenty-five different soils that varied from 4.0 to 43.2 % clay content and 0.07 to 18.23 % total carbon, in an experiment that involved 2 days of adsorption followed by four consecutive desorption steps. The most important result was that for each MC, even if it was in a mixture, were successfully predicted the partition coefficients using the organic carbon, cation exchange capacity and extractable iron as the principal soil characteristics that determine the fate of these explosives.