Influence of HCl pretreatment and organo-mineral complexes on laser diffraction measurement of loess–paleosol-sequences

Abstract The influence of different sample pretreatment methods on grain size distributions in particle size analysis has been subject to controversial discussions. Standard sample preparation typically comprises the disaggregation of aggregated and agglomerated particles into single primary particles, i.e., the organic binding material is oxidized by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and the contained carbonates are dissolved by hydrochloric acid (HCl). The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of HCl treatment on grain size analyses of Late Pleistocene and Holocene loess–paleosol-sequences investigated by a Beckman Coulter LS 13320 laser particle analyzer. For this purpose, samples from two…