Development of physico-chemical speciation procedures to investigate the toxicity of copper,lead, cadmium and zinc towards aquatic biota

A range of model compounds was studied to test the effect of complexing agents on the adsorption of copper, lead, cadmium and zinc by Chelex-100 resin, oxine porous glass, thiol porous glass and thiol resin, from seawater and distilled water. The thiol materials, while showing behaviour similar to Chelex-100 resin and oxine porous glass for zinc, cadmium and lead, retained copper much more strongly. Methods for measuring lipid-soluble metal complexes in waters were also studied. Bio-Rad SM2 resin was the most suitable extractant, although a citrate buffer of pH 5.7 was needed to prevent the co-adsorption of free metal ions. Seawater and various fresh waters were analyzed for trace metal speciation by using Chelex-100 resin, thiol resin and anodic stripping voltammetry to determine labile metal. Bio-Rad SM2 resin and hexane—butanol extraction were used for the estimation of lipid-soluble metal. The polluted water samples had higher fractions of labile and organic-soluble metal, but it was concluded that some of the waters contained unidentified ligands which caused speciation behaviour different from that of the synthetic solutions with model ligands. The factors involved in the choice of speciation procedures for the measurement of the toxic fraction of a metal in a water sample are discussed in detail.