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RESEARCH ARTICLE

Isolation and purification treatments change the metal-binding properties of humic acids: effect of HF/HCl treatment

Wander G. Botero A H , Michael Pineau B , Noémie Janot C D , Rute F. Domingos E , José Mariano F , Luciana S. Rocha B , Jan E. Groenenberg C D G , Marc F. Benedetti E and José P. Pinheiro C D
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Federal University of Alagoas (UFAL), Campus Arapiraca, 57309-005, Arapiraca, AL, Brazil.

B Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry/Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, 8005-139 Faro, Portugal.

C CNRS, LIEC, UMR7360, 15 Avenue du Charmois, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy F-54501, France.

D Université de Lorraine, LIEC, UMR7360, 15 Avenue du Charmois, Vandœuvre-lès-Nancy F-54501, France.

E Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Université Paris Diderot, UMR CNRS 7154, 75205 Paris Cedex 05, France.

F Department of Physics and CeFEMA, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Algarve, Campus de Gambelas, Faro 8005-139, Portugal.

G Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen University and Research, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlands.

H Corresponding author. Email: wanderbotero@gmail.com

Environmental Chemistry 14(7) 417-424 https://doi.org/10.1071/EN17129
Submitted: 12 July 2017  Accepted: 8 September 2017   Published: 31 January 2018

Environmental context. Studying the mechanism of binding between metals and natural organic matter is fundamental to understanding the transport and availability of these contaminants in the environment. The influence of sample treatment on the purification of organic matter showed significant differences in the interaction with metals. The results will contribute to improved modelling of metal binding to organic matter in soils, thereby providing a basis for a more realistic risk assessment.

Abstract. We studied the changes in metal binding characteristics of extracted humic acids induced by HF/HCl treatment followed by dialysis, i.e. the last step of the International Humic Substances Society (IHSS) extraction protocol. We performed metal binding experiments with both the alkaline-extracted material (AE) and the fully purified (FP) humic acid using the electrochemical stripping technique (AGNES) and modelled the results using the NICA-Donnan model. The results showed an increase of free Zn, Cd and Pb concentrations of ~1 order of magnitude for the AE compared with the FP. These differences may be mostly explained by the different carbon content (51.3 % FP and 36.5 % AE) associated with an AE/FP carboxyl ratio of 0.5. Simulations using the NICA-Donnan model showed that halving the amount of carboxylic groups (Qmax,1) for the FP reduced this difference to 0.25 log units for Cd and Zn and to 0.15 log unit for Pb. There is a clear need for further research on the differences between purified v. less-disturbed natural organic material, which will contribute to improved modelling of metal binding to organic matter in soils, hence providing a basis for a more realistic risk assessment.

Additional keywords: alkaline-extracted material, humic acid.


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