Characterization of the Acid-Base Properties of Humic Substances by Chemometric Analysis of Synchronous Fluorescence and pH Potentiometric Data

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Abstract
A procedure for the analysis of the acid-base characteristics of humic substances based on a self-modeling analysis of synchronous fluorescence spectra, collected at varying pH, and on a non-linear least squares adjustment of potentiometic pH data, is described. The data analysis methodology consists of two steps: first, the number of acid-base systems and the corresponding spectra and distribution diagrams are calculated by evolving factor analysis (EFA) with concentration constraints of the spectroscopic data; second, the potentiometric data is analyzed by a standard non-linear least square procedure using as fixed parameters the number of components and their pKas, determined in the first step of the analysis. As an example, for a sample of marine fulvic acids studied at pH between 2 and 11, four acid-base systems were found with average pKas: 3.1, 4.8, 8.0 and 10.0. The concentrations of the corresponding systems were: 2.55(5), 1.95(7), 0.14(4) and 1.8(3) meq/g.