I am working on some analysis of soil. When I make solution of soil with water. After shaking and filtration, the filtrate obtained was not clear and contains mud and turbidity. I also tried with double filtration but could not get so much success. Please anyone have idea about this??????
Thanks
Can you explain more how do you filtrate (or double filtrate) your soil solution?
Is it red soil or Alfisol with fine/clay or fine loam texture ?or any other soil? What filter paper, Whatman no1,40,42,42 etc used for filtration?
I guess it is because your filter paper is the problem. The Whatman 40 has the pore size 8um, and this could allow large particles to pass. So I suggest the smaller size filter papers. I would suggest "EMD Millipore Durapore™ PVDF Membrane Filters: 0.45µ Pore Size". You could find it on Fisher scientific https://www.fishersci.com/shop/products/emd-millipore-durapore-pvdf-membrane-filters-hydrophilic-0-45-pore-size-0-45-pore-size-plain-white-dia-90mm/hvlp09050#?keyword=true. The catalog number is "HVLP09050". I am not sure this could block your samples from filtration or not, but I think the small pore size is what you want. Also, because you are filtering the soil solution, I would suggest to you vacuum pump to help filtration. I guess the filter paper might be easily filled by small particles. You might need to change the filter paper, or you could use your Whatman 40 filter paper to filtrate first and use the new one. This could be helpful to solve the filter paper filled by particles problem.
put the filtrate in the centrifuge pots and centrifuge for 10 min. the filtrate will be clear
I suggest both of the previous solutions. Centrifugation prior to syringe filter (0.45µm). To use the 0.45µm directly would rapidly clog the filter and by centrifugation the risk will lower.
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