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Fluorescence Quenching and Energy Transfer Phenomena Associated with the Interactions of Terbium Ion and Humic Acid

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Abstract

Fluorescence of the hydrophobic acid fraction (HPOA) of Suwannee River natural organic matter and Tb3+ excitation spectra were measured in tandem using the instantaneous and time-resolved emission modes. The intensity of HPOA fluorescence decreased in the presence of Tb3+, while the intensity of the emission from Tb3+ cations bound by HPOA increased by up to several orders of magnitude due to energy transfer (ET) from HPOA to Tb3+ ions. To determine intrinsic ET and fluorescence quenching (FQ) coefficients, NICA–Donnan modeling was carried. It showed that phenolic groups in HPOA dominated both the ET and FQ processes and that the binding of Tb3+ by HPOA could be described using the non-ideality parameter nTb, median binding constant log \(\tilde{K}_{\text{Tb}}\) for the phenolic sites and intrinsic ET and FQ coefficients (denoted as ηTbΦ and αTbΦ), and were 0.48, 8.5, 1385 and 0.12, respectively. The high value of the energy transfer coefficient of Tb3+ ions bound by the phenolic groups in HPOA is indicative of both the match between the electronic levels of the donor and acceptor, and the short distance between them. The deviation of the data of Nica–Donnan modeling of the ET and FQ dependence of versus [Tb]total for a 1.0 M ionic strength highlights the need to quantify the distribution of donor–acceptor distances in HPOA molecules in more detail.

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Acknowledgements

This research was partly funded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (Grant No. R826645), China NSF (No. 51721006) and Shenzhen Science and Technology Plan (JCYJ20160308103848156). The content and conclusions are the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Engineering, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, The Key Laboratory of Water and Sediment Sciences, Ministry of Education, Beijing, 100871, China

    Mingquan Yan

  2. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Washington, Box 352700, Seattle, WA, 98195-2700, USA

    Gregory V. Korshin

  3. Laboratoire de Géochimie et Métallogenie, CNRS UMR-7047, Case 124 Université de Paris Pierre et Marie Curie, 4 Place Jussieu, 75252, Paris Cedex, France

    Marc F. Benedetti

  4. Department of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering, Tamkang University, 151 Ying-Chuan Rd., Tamsui District, New Taipei City, 25137, Taiwan, ROC

    Chi-Wang Li

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  1. Mingquan Yan
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Correspondence to Mingquan Yan.

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Yan, M., Korshin, G.V., Benedetti, M.F. et al. Fluorescence Quenching and Energy Transfer Phenomena Associated with the Interactions of Terbium Ion and Humic Acid. Aquat Geochem 24, 195–207 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-018-9339-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-018-9339-9

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