Species of dissolved Cu and Ni and their adsorption kinetics in turbid riverwater

Time-dependent sorption experiments have been carried out under controlled laboratory conditions, using filtered river water and particles from the turbidity maximum zone (TMZ) of the Tamar Estuary (UK). Adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (ACSV) was used to determine ACSV labile and total dissolved Cu and Ni, without prior sample handling and/or pre-concentration. The ACSV metal lability is theoretically defined and is dependent upon the a-coefficient (aMAL) of the added ACSV ligand. The fraction of labile dissolved Cu in the river water was in the range 28–41% of the total, while labile Ni was 80–90% of the total dissolved Ni. After 24 h incubation with the particles, the concentration of total dissolved Cu was reduced to half the original value and involved the removal of 40% of labile Cu and 70% of the non-labile Cu. Removal of total dissolved Ni after 24 h ranged from 40 to 60% and the uptake kinetics were dominated by adsorption of labile Ni. The kinetics of adsorption for the different chemical forms of Cu and Ni were interpreted by assuming a first-order reversible reaction between the dissolved components and the particulate phase. The chemical response time for the removal of labile Cu was 1.1 and 0.5 h for non-labile Cu. The chemical response time for labile Ni was in a range from 0.7 to 0.3 h. The results are interpreted in terms of the role played by chemical kinetics in determining the phase transport of metals in the reactive zones of estuaries.