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Characterization of interaction between amino acids and fulvic-like organic matter by fluorescence spectroscopy combining thermodynamic calculation

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Abstract

Dissolved organic matter (DOM), as a very fine colloidal suspension, could inevitably affect the transformation process of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) in drinking water treatment. Tryptophan and tyrosine were used as representatives of DON to investigate the interactions between amino acids and fulvic-like components of fluorescent DOM using titration experiments. The fluorescence intensity decreased significantly with the increasing fulvic acid (FA) concentration, suggesting that FA could greatly quench the intrinsic fluorescence of amino acids such as tryptophan and tyrosine. The absolute spectrum peaks of amino acids (AA) were changed in the presence of FA, possibly being resulted from non-covalent interactions between amino acids and FA. The specific hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces played dominant roles in the interactions according to the results of theoretical analysis and thermodynamic calculation. The distance between donor and acceptor was 1.25 and 1.14 nm for the FA–tyrosine and FA–tryptophan system, indicating the energy transfer from tyrosine or tryptophan to FA. The association constant (K) decreased with the increase of temperature and pH value, while the change of ionic strength had no obvious influence on K value.

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Abbreviations

DOM:

Dissolved organic matter

DON:

Dissolved organic nitrogen

FA:

Fulvic acids,

N-DBPs:

Nitrogenous disinfection by-products

THMs:

Trihalomethanes

FDOM:

Fluorescent dissolved organic matter

AA:

Amino acids

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Acknowledgements

Financial support was received from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 51438006), the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment (2014ZX07405002), and the funds sponsored by the Qing Lan Project and A Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Integrated Regulation and Resource Development on Shallow Lakes, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Lin, Bingwei Hou & Wei Chen

  2. College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Lin, Bingwei Hou & Wei Chen

  3. Yixing Water Group, Xiying, 214221, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Wang & Yaqun Xu

Authors
  1. Tao Lin
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  2. Bingwei Hou
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  3. Jian Wang
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  4. Yaqun Xu
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  5. Wei Chen
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Correspondence to Tao Lin.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Lin, T., Hou, B., Wang, J. et al. Characterization of interaction between amino acids and fulvic-like organic matter by fluorescence spectroscopy combining thermodynamic calculation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 7226–7235 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8444-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-8444-4

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