A study of the interaction between humic acids and acidic metabolites of phenanthrene by capillary electrophoresis.

Humic acids (HA) are able to interact with a wide range of pollulants and can influence their solubility, transport and bioavailability. In order to study the interaction between polar aromatic hydrocarbons and these macromolecules, an affinity capillary electrophoretic method, the Hummel-Dreyer (HD) method in its modified version, has been used. Two acidic metabolites of phenanthrene: 1-hydroxy-2-naphthoic acid (1-HNA) and 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid (3,4-DBA) were studied. The analysis for the binding studies was carried out by injecting a solution of HA in 25 mM ammonium hydrogen carbonate buffer (pH 9) into an uncoated fused-silica capillary, filled with buffer solutions of 1-HNA or 3,4-DBA in varying and increasing amounts. The results obtained indicate that both compounds bind to HA, as had been confirmed by dialysis experiments and literature data. CE proved to be a useful technique for investigating the link between xenobiotics and environmental macromolecules.