Abstract
Periphyton contains extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), yet little is known about how periphyton EPS affect the speciation and mobility of mercury (Hg(II)) in aquatic systems. This study extracted and characterized EPS from periphyton in Florida Everglades, and explored its role in Hg(II) binding and speciation using multiple approaches. Results from Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) revealed that colloidal and capsular EPS were primarily comprised of proteins, polysaccharides, phospholipids, and nucleic acids. Ultrafiltration experiments demonstrated that 77 ± 7.7% and 65 ± 5.5% of Hg(II) in EPS solution could be transformed into colloidal and capsular EPS-bound forms. Three-dimensional excitation emission fluorescence spectra (3D-EEMs) showed that the binding constants (Kb) between colloidal/capsular EPS and Hg(II) were 3.47×103 and 2.62×103 L·mol−1. Together with 3D-EEMs and FTIR, it was found that the protein-like and polysaccharide-like substances in EPS contributed to Hg(II) binding. For colloidal EPS, COO- was the most preferred Hg(II) binding group, while C-N, C-O-C, and C-OH were the most preferred ones in capsular EPS. Using the stannous-reducible Hg approach, it was found that EPS significantly decreased the reactive Hg(II). Overall, this study demonstrated that EPS from periphyton are important organic ligands for Hg(II) complexation, which may further affect the migration and reactivity of Hg(II) in aquatic environment. These observations could improve our understanding of Hg(II) methylation and accumulation within periphyton in aquatic systems.
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We thank Dr. Rudolf Jaffe at FIU for providing the instrument for the 3D-EEMs and PARAFAC analysis.
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This study was partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21677061 and 91543103) and the US National Science Foundation (NSF grant # ECS1905239). This latter contribution number is from the Southeast Environmental Research Center in the Institute of Water & Environment at Florida International University.
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Yuping Xiang: conceptualization, formal analysis, methodology, writing - original draft, validation. Guangliang Liu: methodology, funding acquisition, writing - review and editing. Yongguang Yin: conceptualization, writing - review and editing. Yong Cai: project administration, funding acquisition, resources, supervision. All authors contributed to the research article and approved the final version.
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Xiang, Y., Liu, G., Yin, Y. et al. Binding characteristics of Hg(II) with extracellular polymeric substances: implications for Hg(II) reactivity within periphyton. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 60459–60471 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19875-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-19875-8