Relationship between Freundlich isotherm Coefficients, logKFand 1 /nfor atrazine desorption from soils in Japan

Desorption experiments were conducted on 21 soils at 3 atrazine concentrations. The Freundlich isotherm was used to estimate atrazine desorption. For the relationship between Freundlich isotherm coefficients, log K F and 1 / n, 1 / n was also represented by a linear regression of log K F as in the case of atrazine adsorption. All the linear regression lines of desorption exhibited larger slopes and intercepts than those of adsorption. When the atrazine concentration was high, the slope and intercept values were smaller than those for the desorption regression lines. The results showed that the larger the capacity of a soil to adsorb atrazine, the lesser the amount of atrazine desorbed. For the cultivated soils except for Andisols, the percentages of atrazine taken from solutions using the sequential exchange method after the first adsorption experiments, were the same as those desorbed from soils in relation to the initial amount adsorbed. Thus, reversible adsorption occurred in the soils due to weak physical adsorption.