Measurement of electrostatic and site-specific associations of alkali metal cations with humic acid

SUMMARY A discontinuous acidimetric titration method incorporating ultrafiltration was developed to measure the association of a soil humic acid with Li + t, Na + and K + (pH 3 to 8). In addition, possible site‐specific binding of these alkali metal cations was investigated using desorption experiments at pH 1. Li, Na and K cations behaved equivalently in the titrations and the amounts of these cations associated with the humic acid was measurable at all pH values between 3 and 8. Up to 90% of the total alkali metal cation was humate‐associated at pH 8. The absolute amount of humic‐associated cation did not depend on the alkali metal cation concentration, but rather on the solution alkalinity. In addition, the net charge of the humate polyanion made a negligible contribution to the electroneutrality of the bulk solution under all conditions. These results are consistent with a diffuse layer model of hydrated humic acid in which the alkali metal cations neutralize the humic charge. The association of Na+ andK+ with humic acid at pH 1 was successfully described by a Langmuir adsorption model. The number of sites per g of humic acid was very small, and greater for K+ than for Nat. Lithium cations exhibited no detectable humic association at pH 1. These differences suggest that humic acids may have a small number of specific binding sites for which the size of the hydrated cation is important.