Dissociation behaviour of natural biocolloids

This diploma thesis is focused on the study of dissociation behaviour of natural biocolloids, namely humic acids and fulvic acids. Humic and fulvic acids are natural, heterogeneous, high molecular weight substances which behave as weakly acidic polyelectrolytes and they have complex not exactly described structure. They are formed by biochemical transformations of organic residues (mainly plants). They are part of the soil, water, peat, sediments and coal. Solubility of humic acids is affected by pH value. The higher the pH value is the higher the solubility is. Fulvic acids are soluble in whole range of pH values. The aim of this diploma thesis is to determine the dissociation constant for the five kinds of humic acids and four kinds of fulvic acids, which have been isolated from various natural sources. These samples were purchased from IHSS. Dissociation constants were determined by the conductometric method and a combination of measurment pH and the content of acidic functional groups in Na2SO4. UV-VIS spectrophotometry method was used to characterize the quality of humic acids and fulvic acids