Comparative study of humic substances in groundwaters: Pt. 1

Humic and fulvic acids were extracted from Drigg groundwater using the weak anion exchanger, DEAE cellulose. Two different methods of elution from the DEAE cellulose were investigated. These were elution with 0.1M NaOH and elution with a 50:50 mixture of MeCN and 0.5M HCl. The latter method proved to be operationally more difficult and suffered from the disadvantage that it was impossible to determine the concentration of extracted matter until late in the purification procedure. Co- and Ni-humic/fulvic conditional stability constants were determined on different fractions extracted from the groundwater using an ion-exchange-equilibrium method. Measurements were made in 0.005 M NaCl at pH values of 6.5 and 5.0. Conditional stability constants are reported in units of 1/g because of the difficulties inherent in obtaining an unequivocal molecular weight or complexation capacity. Values ranged from 1 to 4 1/g for cobalt and from 2 to 5 1/g for nickel. The purity of the material had a significant effect and values for humic acids were higher than for fulvic acids from the same source. Values at pH 6.5 were higher than at pH=5.0. The stoichiometry of the complexes appeared to be mainly 1:1. Although both the humic and fulvic acids prepared after elution with MeCN/HCl were significantly purer than the corresponding materials prepared after elution with NaOH the stability constants were lower. (author)