Identifying and quantifying geogenic organic carbon in soils – the case of graphite

Zethof, Jeroen H. T.; Leue, Martin; Vogel, Cordula; Stoner, Shane W.; Kalbitz, Karsten

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-383-2019

Articles | Volume 5, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-383-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-383-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 5, issue 2

Original research article

|

19 Dec 2019

Original research article |

| 19 Dec 2019

Identifying and quantifying geogenic organic carbon in soils – the case of graphite

Jeroen H. T. Zethof, Martin Leue, Cordula Vogel, Shane W. Stoner, and Karsten Kalbitz

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-5-383-2019-supplement

Data sets

Accompanying materials for the publication: "Identifying and quantifying geogenic organic carbon in soils - the case of graphite" - Data underlying figures and tables J. H. T. Zethof https://doi.org/10.25532/OPARA-48

Accompanying materials for the publication: "Identifying and quantifying geogenic organic carbon in soils - the case of graphite" - TGA thermograms J. H. T. Zethof https://doi.org/10.25532/OPARA-47

FTIR spectra J. H. T. Zethof https://doi.org/10.25532/OPARA-49

Short summary

A widely overlooked source of carbon (C) in the soil environment is organic C of geogenic origin, e.g. graphite. Appropriate methods are not available to quantify graphite and to differentiate it from other organic and inorganic C sources in soils. Therefore, we examined Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis and the smart combustion method for their ability to identify and quantify graphitic C in soils. The smart combustion method showed the most promising results.