Copper dissociation from estuarine humic materials

Dissolved humic material from three locations on the Ogeechee River Estuary near Savannah, GA, was ultrafiltered into three size fractions and used for kinetic experiments with Cu(II). A Cu(II)-humic mixture was reacted with a colorimetric reagent for Cu(II) and absorbance observed from 50 msec to at least 1835 sec corresponding to rate constants from 0.001-40 sec^-1. The apparent dissociation rate constants were distributed over a wide range, with most bound Cu(II) having k > 1 sec^-1 (t _{1 2} < 0.7 sec). Nearly all the variation seen in the kinetic distribution was among size fractions; as size fraction decreased, the distribution of bound Cu(II) shifted to larger rate constants. Location of sampling stations on the estuary had little effect on results.