Cation Exchange Capacity of Clay in Greece

Abstract

The soil samples which have been used to determine the CEC of the Greek swelling soil, were collected from 17 districts all over the country, and the ammonium acetate method (Schofield, 1949) was used because is a commonly used method by Chemists. Fifty-six clay soil samples were tested using the material passing the US sieve No 40. Each sample was washed three times with ammonium solution to saturate the exchange sites and the exchange ions in milliequivalents per 100 gr of dry soil were determined in the leached extract by a corne flame photometer. The soil pH determination was also measured according to BS 1377: Part 3: 1990 9: The results of the measurement from 300 soil samples of the Greek territory are reported. Additionally, one attempt was made to correlate the obtained CEC values with Liquid limit, Plasticity index and, montmorillonite percent.