Charge Determination of Humic Acid and Humic Extract by Spectrophotometry

The charge densities of humic acid and humic extract have been determined by back titration using spectrophotometry as the method of end point detection and several cationic polymers of different charge density(copolymers of acylamide and dimethylaminoethylacrylate and polydiallyidimethylammonium chloride, PDDA), and a cationic indicator o-toluidine blue(o-Tb). The charge densities of humic acid and humic extract obtained depend on the charge densities of cationic polymers used. When the polymers of lower charge density are used, lower apparent charge density values are obtained, but for polymers of high charge density(above 2.5 meq/g), the measured values are almost identical, but also are nearly the same as that obtained for PDDA which has a high charge density(about 6 meq/g). For polymers of lower charge density, it is considered that the optimum dosage does not correspond to 1 :1 charge neutralization between anionic and cationic groups. Polymers of high charge density should be used in order to achieve a complete charge neutralization. As humic acid and humic extract are dissociable acids, their ionization is heavily pH dependent and so higher charge density values are obtaines with increasing pH.