Kinetics of Cu(II) Reduction by Natural Organic Matter

The kinetics of Cu(II) reduction by Suwannee River fulvic acid (SRFA) at concentrations from 0.25 to 8 mg L-1 have been investigated in 2 mM NaHCO3 and 0.7 M NaCl at pH 8.0. In the absence of oxygen, SRFA reduced Cu(II) to Cu(I) in a biphasic manner, with initial rapid formation of Cu(I) followed by a much slower increase in Cu(I) concentration over time. When present, oxygen only had a noticeable effect on Cu(I) concentrations in the second phase of the reduction process and at high [SRFA]. In both the absence and presence of oxygen, the rate of Cu(1) generation increased with increasing [SRFA]. At 8 mg L-1 [SRFA], nearly 75% of the 0.4 mu M Cu(II) initially present was reduced to Cu(l) after 20 mm, although the yield of Cu(I) relative to [SRFA] decreased at [SRFA] > 1 mg L-1. Two plausible kinetic modeling approaches were found to satisfactorily describe the experimental data over a range of [SRFA]. Despite some uncertainty as to which approach is correct, common features of both approaches were complexation of Cu(II) by SRFA and reduction of Cu(II) by two different electron donor groups within SRFA: a relatively labile electron donor (with a concentration of 1.1 x 10(-4) equiv of e(-) (g of SRFA)(-1)) that reduced Cu(II) relatively rapidly and a less labile donor (with a concentration of 3.1 X 10(-4) equiv of e(-) (g of SRFA)(-1)) that reduced Cu(II) more slowly.