Dissociation kinetics of Fe(III)– and Al(III)–natural organic matter complexes at pH 6.0 and 8.0 and 25 °C

The rate at which iron– and aluminium–natural organic matter (NOM) complexes dissociate plays a critical role in the transport of these elements given the readiness with which they hydrolyse and precipitate. Despite this, there have only been a few reliable studies on the dissociation kinetics of these complexes suggesting half-times of some hours for the dissociation of Fe(III) and Al(III) from a strongly binding component of NOM. First-order dissociation rate constants are re-evaluated here at pH 6.0 and 8.0 and 25 °C using both cation exchange resin and competing ligand methods for Fe(III) and a cation exchange resin method only for Al(III) complexes. Both methods provide similar results at a particular pH with a two-ligand model accounting satisfactorily for the dissociation kinetics results obtained. For Fe(III), half-times on the order of 6–7 h were obtained for dissociation of the strong component and 4-5 min for dissociation of the weak component. For aluminium, the half-times were on the order of 1.5 h and 1-2 min for the strong and weak components, respectively. Overall, Fe(III) complexes with NOM are more stable than analogous complexes with Al(III), implying Fe(III) may be transported further from its source upon dilution and dispersion.