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Updated: Apr 15, 2026

Quantification of Humic and Fulvic Acids in Humate Ores, DOC, Humified Materials and Humic Substance-Containing Commercial Products
Published on: March 18, 2022
Lability of copper bound to humic acid
Lingchen Mao1, Scott D Young1, Elizabeth H Bailey1
1Division of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham, Sutton Bonington Campus, Loughborough, Leicestershire LE12 5RD, United Kingdom.
Abstract:
Geochemical speciation models generally include the assumption that all metal bound to humic acid and fulvic acid (HA, FA) is labile. However, in the current study, we determined the presence of a soluble 'non-labile' Cu fraction bound to HA extracted from grassland and peat soils. This was quantified by determining isotopically-exchangeable Cu (E-value) and EDTA-extraction of HA-bound Cu, separated by size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and assayed by coupled ICP-MS. Evidence of time-dependent Cu fixation by HA was found during the course of an incubation study (160 d); up to 50% of dissolved HA-bound Cu was not isotopically exchangeable. This result was supported by extraction with EDTA where approximately 40% of Cu remained bound to HA despite dissolution in 0.05 M Na2-EDTA. The presence of a substantial non-labile metal fraction held by HA challenges the assumption of wholly reversible equilibrium which is central to current geochemical models of metal binding to humic substances.
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