Binding constant determination of uranyl-citrate complex by ACE using a multi-injection method

The binding constant determination of uranyl with small-molecule ligands such as citric acid could provide fundamental knowledge for a better understanding of the study of uranyl complexation, which is of considerable importance for multiple purposes. In this work, the binding constant of uranyl-citrate complex was determined by ACE. Besides the common single-injection method, a multi-injection method to measure the electrophoretic mobility was also applied. The BGEs used contained HClO4 and NaClO4 , with a pH of 1.98 ± 0.02 and ionic strength of 0.050 mol/L, then citric acid was added to reach different concentrations. The electrophoretic mobilities of the uranyl-citrate complex measured by both of the two methods were consistent, and then the binding constant was calculated by nonlinear fitting assuming that the reaction had a 1:1 stoichiometry and the complex was [(UO2 )(Cit)](-) . The binding constant obtained by the multi-injection method was log K = 9.68 ± 0.07, and that obtained by the single-injection method was log K = 9.73 ± 0.02. The results provided additional knowledge of the uranyl-citrate system, and they demonstrated that compared with other methods, ACE using the multi-injection method could be an efficient, fast, and simple way to determine electrophoretic mobilities and to calculate binding constants.