Abstract

Soil thin-layer chromatography (TLC) is useful for rapid determination of the relative mobility (RF) of herbicides and other synthetic organic compounds (SOC) in soil but fails for volatile compounds. An alternative method using small soil chromatographic columns was developed to minimize SOC volatilization while maintaining the essential characteristics of soil TLC. Both methods indicated that benzoic acid was more mobile than aniline in most of the soils. Variations in RF values between methods generally were small and suggested that either method was acceptable for laboratory estimation of the relative mobility of SOC with low vapor pressures. Soil chromatographic columns allowed determination of RF values for toluene, which is too volatile for soil TLC.