On the precipitation of salts/complexes of trivalent cations with humic acid

Some trivalent cations form precipitates with humic acid at pH 4.2. The precipitates contain less metal cations than suggested by the neutralization-charge model for soluble complexes based on the available anionic sites. It is suggested that cations, which can form inner-sphere complexes, may precipitate before they are completely neutralized, while those that do not form complexes precipitate only after complete neutralization. (author)