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Abstract
Estimation of organic‐bound iron (Fe) and aluminum (Al) is an important diagnostic technique in pedology. The commonly used sodium pyro‐phosphate method yields somewhat ambiguous results and is inconvenient if an ultracentrifuge is not available in the laboratory. This study showed that 0.1M sodium nitrilotriacetate (NTA) could be used instead of pyrophosphate. The Fe and Al extracted by 0.1 M NTA were highly correlated to that by sodium pyrophosphate with R2 = 0.993 for Fe and R2 = 0.992 for Al, while the dissolution effects on standard mineral samples in NTA was kept at a minimum. NTA has the advantage of not requiring ultrafiltration, ultracentrifugation, or the addition of a flocculating agent as is the case for the pyrophosphate method.
