MCR of the quenching of the EEM of fluorescence of dissolved organic matter by metal ions Original Research Article

The quenching of the fluorescence of excitation emission matrices (EEM) of two samples of dissolved organic matter (DOM) [fulvic acid from a dam water (FA) and a commercial humic acid (HA)], provoked by the metal ions Cu(II), UO22+, Fe(III) and Hg(II), was studied by principal component analysis (PCA) and multivariate curve resolution with alternating least squares (MCR-ALS). PCA of the individual EEM, sets of EEM and the sequential analysis of EEM allows the determination of the number of components that provoke linearly independent variations in the EEM and to assess the trend and stability of the quenching process. Four and three components were detected in the EEM of FA and HA, respectively. Some of these components show quenching in the presence of the studied metal ions and other are not affected. Also, the occurrence of scattering due to hydrolysis of metal ions is detected in the PCA sequential analysis of EEM as function of the metal ion concentration. Excitation and emission spectra and quenching profiles were extracted from EEM using MCR-ALS with non-negativity constraints. Stability constants between FA and HA with the studied metal ions were estimated by a modified Stern–Volmer equation.