Hydrogen peroxide is not a good reagent for the removal of soil organic matter
Organic matter (OM) is the most important cementing agent of soil particles. Soils containing high amount of OM (like the limestone soil from Leyte in the picture below) generally have good aggregation (i.e. the sand, silt and clay particles are glued together by the OM). Removal of OM using chemical reagents is thus an important pretreatment in textural or particle size analysis as well as in the evaluation of soil mineralogy, cation exchange capacity, and surface area. Soil in Leyte having a dark surface horizon due to OM Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) which was first used in 1923 by G.W. Robinson to destroy soil organic matter, is the most widely used chemical reagent for removing OM in soil laboratories worldwide. However, there have been some scientific reports indicating that it may not be a good reagent for that purpose due to some unwanted effects on the mineral soil particles. In the Philippines, it is not also easy to procure large volumes of hydrogen peroxide since it require...