Soil & Water Res., 2014, 9(1):9-17 | DOI: 10.17221/39/2013-SWR

Spectral characterization of selected humic substancesOriginal Paper

Vojtěch ENEV¹, Ľubica POSPÍŠILOVÁ², Martina KLUČÁKOVÁ¹, Tibor LIPTAJ³, Leoš DOSKOČIL¹

¹ Materials Research Centre, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic

² Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, Microbiology and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of Agronomy, Mendel University in Brno, Brno, Czech Republic;

³ Department of NMR Spectroscopy and Mass Spectroscopy, Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Slovak University of Technology, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Current concern for soil quality has stimulated research on soil organic matter (OM). Humic substances (HS) of different origin were compared applying ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), "steady-state" fluorescence spectroscopy, and ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (¹³C NMR). Sodium humates samples were isolated from soil (Gleyic Luvisol), compost, and South-Moravian lignite from the mine Mír in Mikulčice. Sodium humates (SH) were extracted by a conventional procedure recommended by the International Humic Substances Society (IHSS). Results showed that the presence of O-containing functional groups (carbonyl in aldehydes and ketones, carboxyl in carboxylic acids, ester and ether groups) are in the order of compost > soil > lignohumate > lignite. Further, results of FTIR, fluorescence spectroscopy, and ¹³C NMR suggested that samples of sodium humates isolated from soil, compost, and lignite were a more polycondensed, oxidized, unsaturated, humified, and aromatic structure. On the other hand, commercial lignohumate (LH) had very simple structural components and wide molecular heterogeneity. Furthermore, a small molecular size and weight, low degree of aromatic polycondensation, low level of conjugated chromophores and fluorophores, and low humification degree were characteristic for commercial LH. It should be noted that the sample of commercial LH was characterized by ¹³C NMR analysis with a slightly higher value of aromaticity α in comparison with the sample of compost. The application of non-destructive analytical methods such as UV-VIS, FTIR, ¹³C NMR, and fluorescence spectroscopy help us to provide main characteristics of selected humic substances.

Keywords: 13C NMR spectroscopy; Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR); humates; lignohumate; steady-state fluorescence spectroscopy; UV-VIS

Published: March 31, 2014  Show citation