Mapping Phosphorus Availability in Soil at a Large Scale and High Resolution Using Novel Diffusive Gradients in Thin Films Designed for X-ray Fluorescence Microscopy
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Authors
Organisational units
External Organisational units
- University of South Australia
- Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
- Australian Synchrotron
- School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland
Abstract
A novel binding layer (BL) as part of the diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) technique was developed for the two-dimensional visualization and quantification of labile phosphorus (P) in soils. This BL was designed for P detection by synchrotron-based X-ray fluorescence microscopy (XFM). It differs from the conventional DGT BL as the hydrogel is eliminated to overcome the issue that the fluorescent X-rays of P are detected mainly from shallow sample depths. Instead, the novel design is based on a polyimide film (Kapton) onto which finely powdered titanium dioxide-based P binding agent (Metsorb) was applied, resulting in superficial P binding only. The BL was successfully used for quantitative visualization of P diffusion from three conventional P fertilizers applied to two soils. On a selection of samples, XFM analysis was confirmed by quantitative laser-ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The XFM method detected significant differences in labile P concentrations and P diffusion zone radii with the P fertilizer incubation, which were explained by soil and fertilizer properties. This development paves the way for fast XFM analysis of P on large DGT BLs to investigate in situ diffusion of labile P from fertilizers and to visualize large-scale P cycling processes at high spatial resolution.
Details
Original language | English |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 440-448 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Environmental science & technology |
Volume | 58.2024 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 18 Dec 2023 |