Distribution of total reactive fluoride in sediments of Kuttanad waters

  • 31/10/2007

  • Indian Journal of Environmental Protection

Fluoride takes part in a number of geochemical and biochemical reactions. The activity of the fluoride thus makes the ion non conservative in many occations, though the ion is included in the major ions category. Preferential enrichment of fluoride is a general observations in the coastal and estuarine environment. The speciation of sedimentary fluoride thus will have special significance in defining the estuarine and coastal aquatic system. In this study the attempt is to fractionate the sedimentary fluoride into acid extractable fluoride, NaCl extractable fluoride and NaHCO3 extractable fluoride. In the present study, the maximum percentage of fluoride is obtained in the HCl extraction, which can be due to the leaching of clay minerals.