• Proceedings of the Korean Nuclear Society Conference
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• 1997.05b
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• pp.439-444
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• 1997

In order to investigate organic association of fallout cesium, strontium and plutonium in the soil, soil samples influenced by fallout from nuclear weapon testings were treated with alkali (0.1 M-sodium hydroxide solution) to extract organic acids. After extraction, the resultant three fractions (sedimentary residue, humic and fulvic acid fractions) were subjected to the r-ray spectrometric analysis for $^{137}$ Cs, and radiochemical analysis for gosr and $^{239,240}$Pu. Alkali extraction experiments showed that a lot of $^{ 239,240}$Pu was extracted to organic acids from the soil samples, whereas most of $^{137}$ Cs and $^{90}$ Sr remained in residual fraction. Less than 10% of the total $^{137}$ Cs and $^{90}$ Sr was found in the organic fraction. The concentrations of $^{137}$ Cs and $^{90}$ Sr associated with humic fractions were higher than those with the corresponding fulvic fractions. It was found that more than 40% of the total $^{239,240}$Pu was associated with the organic fraction of soils. In contrast with $^{137}$ Cs and $^{90}$ Sr, $^{239,240}$Pu associated with vulvic fractions was much higher than in humic fractions.

• Analytical Science and Technology
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.136-140
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• 2009

To improve the carbon recovery yield of chemical pretreatment in soil and sediment for $^{14}C$ age dating using AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry), we have developed ultrasonic method in chemical pretreatment to replace with stirring method which has been generally used in each step of humic acid extraction for soil and sediment samples. Extraction conditions such as ultrasonic power, temperature and reaction time have been optimized. Six times higher carbon recovery yield could be obtained from low carbon content samples using ultrasonic method. We also compared the dating results by AMS obtained using ultrasonic method with the ages of samples treated by the stirring method. It was found that this new method could be applied to the pretreatment process of low carbon content samples for AMS age dating without effects on the dated ages, and with highly improved carbon recovery yields.

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.416-421
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• 1988

Humic acids were extracted from straw of wheat and rye at three different stages of decomposition. Contents and distribution of amino acids in the hydrolysates of humic acids were examined and the results obtained can be summarized as the following: 1. Contents and distribution of amino acids in the hydrolysates of humic acids differ from plant to plant and from one stage of decomposition to another. 2. Neutral amino acids as a group take the largest portion of the total amino acids in humic acid hydrolysates followed by the acidic and the basic. 3. The total amount of amino acids in decomposed wheat straw at the 90 days of humification was greater than that in the case of rye straw. 4. Contents of amino acids other than arginine, histidine and tyrosine were increased in the case of wheat straw, while only the contents of lysine, phenylalanine, tyrosine and methionine were observed to increase in the case of rye straw. 5. Exceptionally high contents of phenylalanine and tyrosine were measured in the hydrolysate from rye straw taken at the end of experimental period. 6. No amount of arginine was detected in any hydrolysate of humic acids from decomposed plant residues.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Crop Science Conference
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• 2017.06a
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• pp.340-340
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• 2017

Rice straw is very important to maintain fertility in agricultural soil with several aspects such as carbon and nitrogen cycles in Korea. Recently, concerning about climate change, carbon sequestration in agricultural land has become one of the most interesting and debating issues. Rice straw is most representative source of organic material produced in agricultural sectors. In order to evaluate changes of soil carbon treated by rice straw during cultivating rice in paddy field, we carried out to treat rice straw with 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and $2.0ton\;ha^{-1}$ at $50{\times}50{\times}20cm$ blocks made of wood board, and analyze contents of fulvic acid and humic acid form, and total carbon periodically. The experiment was conducted in 2013-2016, and sampled with interval in a month. The organic material was applied to treatment blocks in 2 weeks ago in rice transplanting of each year. Total carbon in beginning time is low as $7.9g\;kg^{-1}$. The contents of total carbon with treatments of rice straw after experiment are recorded as 8.7, 11.2, 9.5, 10.5, and $10.9g\;kg^{-1}$ applied by 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and $2.0ton\;ha^{-1}$, respectively. When trend lines were calculated on changes of soil carbon in periods of experiments, The trend equations of soil carbon changes with treatments of 0, 0.5, 1, 1.5, and $2.0ton\;ha^{-1}$ were Y=0.0015X+8.479, Y=0.073X+8.2577, Y=0.0503X+8.4477, Y=0.0822X+8.2103, and Y=0.082X+8.5736. These trends suggested several results. When rice straw was applied in cultivating paddy fields, most carbon in rice straw would be decomposed regardless the amount of rice straw in soil. We calculated sequestration rate of applied rice straw as about 0.1% per year during rice cultivation in paddy fields. It means that if farmer want to increase 1% soil organic matter by using application of rice straw returned after cultivation, famer should apply rice straw continuously for ten years. The change of soil carbon as fulvic acid, humic acid, and humane is showed that only content of carbon as mumine is increased significantly while fulvic acid and humic acid were changed in range of 10 to 30% among total carbon in soil. In conclusion, to sequestrate soil carbon with rice straw, it is important for rice straw to apply continuously every year. The amount of rice straw applied is not much effected to increase soil organic matter.

• Journal of Korean Society of Environmental Engineers
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.869-877
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• 2000

A mechanism of ozonation of simulated soil slurry contaminated by phenanthrene and benzo[a]pyrene has been studied under various conditions. The effects of soil media(BS, S, GB), radical scavenger, ozone input ratio(0.17~0.73mg/min), bicarbonate ion, and humic acid were investigated, BS showed the highest removal efficiency in media tested. The generation of OH-radical via the catalytic decomposition of ozone on active sites of the natural sand was confirmed by OH-radical scavenger experiments. The enhanced removal efficiency by OH-radical was indirectly quantified to be about 22%. As initial concentration of humic acid(as sodium salt) was increased, pseudo first-order rate constant ($k_o$) of phenanthrene was decreased from $1.37{\times}10^{-2}s^{-1}$ to $0.53{\times}10^{-2}s^{-1}$. The amount of ozone required to oxidize 80% of the initial mass of phenanthrene(10mg/kg) and benzo[a]pyrene(10mg/kg) was 67.2mg/kg-soil and 48.0mg/kg-soil, respectively.

• Korean Journal of Environmental Agriculture
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.313-318
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• 2007

In greenhouse farming, a variety of humic acids have been applied to improve soil conditions and plant growth. However, it is still unclear that how humic acids combined with chemical fertilizers affect growth and quality of fruit vegetable crops. This study was conducted to determine the combination effect of humic acids and chemical fertilizers on the growth and fruit quality of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum MILL.) grown under greenhouse conditions. Three different formulation types of humic acid were used: liquid type A, liquid type B and solid type C. The tomato plants were grown in three treatment combination plots and in conventional fertilizer (CF) plot with recommended levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium: HA combined with CF (HA+CF), HB combined with CF (HB+CF) and HC combined with CF (HC+CF). For most of growth characteristics (i.e. leaf number, internode length, maximum leaf length, leaf width and chlorophyll contents) determined in this experiment, no significant differences were observed between all combination treatments and CF. However, integrated fruit qualities (i.e. averaged weight, sugar contents and acidity) were slightly improved in the humic acid combined with CF treatments when compared with CF alone treatment. No phytotoxicity was observed with humic acid treatments. However, further studies will probably be needed to use widely and safely these humic acids, in order to ensure a maximizing growth, fruit yield and quality of tomato.

• Membrane and Water Treatment
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• v.9 no.3
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• pp.137-146
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• 2018

Soil washing is one of the most frequently used remediation technologies for heavy metal-contaminated soils. Inorganic and organic acids and chelating agents that can enhance the removal of heavy metals from contaminated soils have been employed as soil washing agents. However, the toxicity, low removal efficiency and high cost of these chemicals limit their use. Given that humic substance (HS) can effectively chelate heavy metals, the development of an eco-friendly, performance-efficient and cost-effective soil washing agent using a nano-scale chelator composed of HS was examined in this study. Copper (Cu) and lead (Pb) were selected as target heavy metals. In soil washing experiments, HS concentration, pH, soil:washing solution ratio and extraction time were evaluated with regard to washing efficiency and the chelation effect. The highest removal rates by soil washing (69% for Cu and 56% for Pb) were achieved at an HS concentration of 1,000 mg/L and soil:washing solution ratio of 1:25. Washing with HS was found to be effective when the pH value was higher than 8, which can be attributed to the increased chelation effect between HS and heavy metals at the high pH range. In contrast, the washing efficiency decreased markedly in the low pH range due to HS precipitation. The chelation capacities for Cu and Pb in the aqueous phase were determined to be 0.547mmol-Cu/g-HS and 0.192mmol-Pb/g-HS, respectively.

• Journal of Soil and Groundwater Environment
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• v.18 no.7
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• pp.81-89
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• 2013

Concerns have been raised over the impact of nano materials on soil and groundwater environment with the increasing attention to the potential applications of carbon nano materials in various fields. Particularly, carbon nano materials introduced into water environment readily make complexes with humic acid (HA) due to their hydrophobic nature, so there have been increasing numbers of studies on the interaction between HA and carbon nano materials. In this study, we investigated the solubility of HA and multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) in three different surfactant solutions of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Brij 30 and Triton X-100, and evaluated whether the HA can be effectively desorbed from the surface of MWCNT by surfactant. The objective of this study was to determine the optimal adsorption condition for HA to MWCNT. Futhermore, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), Brij 30, Triton X-100 were used to elucidate the effect of desorption and separation on adsorbed HA on MWCNT. As a result, HA solution with 12.7 mg of total organic carbon (TOC) and 5 mg of MWCNT showed the highest adsorption capacity at pH 3 reacted for 72 hrs. Weight solubilizing ratio (WSR) of surfactants on HA and MWCNT was calculated. HA had approximately 2 times lower adsorption capacity for the applied three surfactants compared to those of MWCNT, implying that the desorption of HA may occur from the HA/MWCNT complex. According to the results of adsorption isotherm and weight solubilizing ratio (WSR), the most effective surfactants was the SDS 1% soluiton, showing 53.63% desorption of HA at pH 3.

• Applied Biological Chemistry
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.143-162
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• 1972

Based on the concentration of $^{40}K$ naturally occurring radioisotope of potassium, a method for the determination of total potassium in soils and plants was developed. The method was extended to evaluate the potassium supplying power of soils by taking the ratio of exchangeable potassium to total potassium $(K_{ex}/K_t)$, termed the potassium buffering capacity. Using this as index, it was observed that the release of potassium from soil fellows the from order reaction. A linear relationship was found between the potassium buffering capacity and the release constant of potassium or mica content of the clay. Similarly the potassium buffering capacity was also closely correlated with total uptake of potassium by rice plant. Hence it is concluded that the method for determining of the potassium buffering capacity could be veil applied to characterize the potassium availability of soils. The method for the determination of potassium is characterized by (1) The efficient measurement of the weak beta activity emissions from the samples, (2) identification of $^{40}K$, (3) calculation of total potassium content using the proportional constant of $^{40}K$ of samples to that of the standard. Difference in the potassium supplying power of soils due to soil types was also evaluated with the use of this technique. The degree of the potassium supplying power was in the order of soil types as red-yellow podzolic and lateric soils, basaltic materials(Rvd)> low-humic gley and alluvial soils, alluvial plains and food plains(Apa)> low-humic gley soils, nearly level to sloping local alluvial plains and slopes(Afb)> low-humic gley and alluvial soils, fluvio-marine plains (Fma).

• Korean Journal of Soil Science and Fertilizer
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.20-27
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• 1983

A series of laboratory experiment was conducted to find out the chemical composition, characterization of humic substances by physical and chemical methods and reaction of Na-pyrophosphate, $Ca(OH)_2$ and rice straw with albumin on the degradation of soil organic matter in the volcanic ask soils of the Jeju Island. Results obtained were summarized as follows: 1. The contents of organic matter, available silicon, active iron and aluminum concentration in volcanic ash the soils were remarkably higher but available phosphorous was comparatively lower than the mineral soils. In volcanic ash soil, the contents of potassium, calcium and magnessium were higher in upland soil than that of forest soil. The ratios of active $Al^{{+}{+}{+}}/Fe^{{+}{+}}$, C/P and $K/Ca^+$ Mg were apparently high in volcanic ash soils while that of $SiO_2$/O.M. was high in mineral soil. 2. The carbon/nitrogen ratio in humin, humic acid content in organic matter, and carbon contents of humin in total carbon of soil organic matter were apparently higher in the volcanic ash soils than in the mineral soils, The total nitrogen and fractions of acid or alkali soluble nitrogen were remarkably high in volcanic ash soils while mineralizable nitrogen ($NH_4$-N and $NO_3$) contents were high in mineral soils. 3. The values of K600, RF and log K were also higher in volcanic ash soils than those in mineral soils, and the absorbance in the visible range were high and color was dark in the soil of which humification was progressed Extracted humic acid from volcanic ash soil was less reactive to the oxidizing chemical reagent and was persistance to the acid or alkali hydrolysises. 4. The major oxygen-containing functional groups in humic substances of volcanic ash soils were phenolic-OH alcoholic-OH and carboxyl groups while those in mineral soil were methoxyl and carbonyl groups. 5. Absorption spectra of alkaline solution of humic acid ranged from 200 nm to maxima 500 nm. Visible spectra peaks of from humic substances in the visible region were recognized at 350, 420, 450 and 480 nm. Only one single absorbance peak was observed in the visible region at 362 nm for Heugag series and two absorbance Peak were also at 360 nm and 390 nm for Yeungrag series. 6. Evolution of carbon as $Co_2$ was increased with addition of Na-pyrophosphate in Namweon and Heugag series, and "priming effects" took place on the soil organic matter decomposition by addition of rice straw with albumin in Ido series.