Sorptive affinity of ionic surfactants on silt loamy soil

Abstract Due to their broad applications, ionic surfactants have already been released into or utilized in soil and environmental systems. However, current understanding on the sorption behavior of surfactants onto soils is still limited. This work systematically investigated the sorption kinetics and isotherms of one cationic surfactant, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), and one anionic surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), onto a silt loamy soil to determine the governing sorption mechanisms. The pseudo-second-order rate equation described the sorption kinetics data better than the pseudo-first-order rate equation. Experimental data showed that the sorption equilibrium for CTAB and SDS were reached at 24 and 240 h, respectively. Langmuir equation was better than Freundlich equation in simulating the sorption isotherms of CTAB and SDS on the soil. Soil Langmuir maximum sorption capacity of CTAB was much higher than that to SDS. When the experimental temperature increased, the sorption of CTAB and SDS on the soil decreased. In addition, the sorptive process of the surfactants on the soil was spontaneous and exothermal, as indicated by the absolute values of Gibbs free energy and enthalpy. The results also indicated that physical sorption was the dominant mechanism for the sorption of the two surfactants on the soil. Findings from this work are crucial to understand the environmental behaviors of ionic surfactants.