Variation of the stability of complexes of Al(III) with a fulvic acid extracted from a humic cambisol soil in the pH range three to five

Abstract

AbstractThe interaction of the aluminum ion [Al(III)] with the major constituent of soil organic matter, fulvic acids (FA), was investigated in the acid pH range. The complexation of a FA extracted from a humic cambisol soil (at a concentration of 80 mg/L) when titrated with Al(III) were monitored directly by synchronous fluorescence (SyF) spectroscopy at five pH values (3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, and 5.0), at 25°C and with 0.1 N KNO3. Inverted second derivative SyF data were preprocessed by a self‐modeling mixture analysis method to obtain fluorescence enhancement profiles as a function of the increasing Al(III) concentration. Assuming that the concentration of complexes formed between Al(III) and FA is proportional to the fluorescence intensity, these profiles were adjusted to a 1:1 complexation model and the following conditional stability constants (log Kc) were calculated (standard deviation in parenthesis), pH = 3.0, 4.3 (1); pH = 3.5, 4.3 (1); pH = 4.0, 5.0 (1); pH = 4.5, 5.1 (3); and pH = 5.0, 5.3 (2). These constants show that the stability of the complexes decreases markedly at pH < 4. The environmental implication of this result is that an increase in the extent of the dissociation of the Al(III) + FA complexes is expected at pH < 4, increasing the free Al(III) concentration and probably its ecotoxicity.