The toxicity, reactivity, and mobility of metals in the environment is often controlled by complexation reactions with dissolved organic ligands. Copper complexation can be used as an indirect probe to study reactive sites of organic matter. This is important for characterizing not only organic matter in general, but also its active sites for reactivity with metal ions in the soil environment. In situ aqueous solutions containing copper-organic mixtures were measured at the Cu L-edge using a soft x-ray beamline (SGM) at the Canadian Light Source. Cu L-edge measurements provide direct access to the bonding orbitals in metal-ligand complexes, and distinct shifts can be seen that correspond to changes in the ligand field of Cu-ligand complexes. Systematic changes in ligand structure were used to study the relevance of ligand Lewis base properties and the contribution nitrogen in these complexes. Comparison between aqueous and solid-state measurements will also be presented.

In situ spectroscopic studies of aqueous Cu(II)-organic complexes

245th National Meeting (2013)

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