title: In Situ Representation of Soil/Sediment Conductivity Using Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy.
abstract: The electrical conductivity (EC) of soil is generally measured after soil extraction, so this method cannot represent the in situ EC of soil (e.g., EC of soils with different moisture contents) and therefore lacks comparability in some cases. Using a resistance measurement apparatus converted from a configuration of soil microbial fuel cell, the in situ soil EC was evaluated according to the Ohmic resistance (Rs) measured using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The EC of soils with moisture content from 9.1% to 37.5% was calculated according to Rs. A significant positive correlation (R² = 0.896, p < 0.01) between the soil EC and the moisture content was observed, which demonstrated the feasibility of the approach. This new method can not only represent the actual soil EC, but also does not need any pretreatment. Thus it may be used widely in the measurement of the EC for soils and sediments.
authors.affiliation: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Tianjin 300191, China. lixiaojing@caas.cn.|MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. lixiaojing@caas.cn.
authors.forename: Xiaojing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. xinwang1@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. zqtalent@163.com.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. zyynku@126.com.
authors.forename: Yueyong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: MOE Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China. zhouqx@nankai.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qixing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhou
keywords: electrochemical impedance spectroscopy; resistance measurement apparatus; soil electrical conductivity; soil microbial fuel cells; soil resistivity