COMPARISON OF WET CHEMISTRY AND DRY COMBUSTION METHODS FOR ORGANIC CARBON AND SULFUR DETERMINATION IN SOILS OF NIGERIA’S SAVANNA

Journal: Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY)
Author: Habib, D. W, Idris F. B, Mustapha A. A. and Abdurrahman B. L
ISSN: 2576-6732
e-ISSN: 2576-6724

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: 10.26480/acmy.02.2024.114.119

The study of physicochemical properties of soil is essential for evaluating nutrient status and other characteristics that regulate plant growth. Soil scientists in Nigeria commonly use wet chemistry and dry combustion methods to determine the organic carbon and sulfur content of soil. However, there is insufficient information on the efficiency and limitations of these methods for academic purposes. A laboratory experiment was conducted in 2019, using 60 topsoil samples from the Sudan savanna and northern Guinea savanna agroecology of Nigeria, to compare the results of wet and dry methods for determining organic carbon and sulfur content. The results showed that the CHNS/O analyzer provided higher accuracy and mean values for organic carbon determination, while wet chemistry revealed higher mean and R2 values for sulfur determination. The use of the CHNS/O analyzer is recommended due to its accuracy and safety. Future studies are needed to further evaluate the relationship between these two methods.