Humic acids defined

Humic substances in sediments and soils have commonly been, defined as heteropolycondensates of decomposing plant and animal detritus 46. For lack of a better structural definition, these macromolecular substances have been divided into three categories fulvic acids and humic acid and humin. Fulvic acids and humic acids are soluble in dilute alkaline solutions, whereas humin is insoluble. 

Vauquelin (14), A. Klaproth (6), and R. Jameson (5), alkali soluble organic constituents of soil and coal are designated as humic acids/ Collectively, these substances make up an ill-defined series of dark colored, weakly acidic solids which form whenever plant components (such as lignin) are exposed to fungal oxidases, or when coal is allowed to weather or otherwise oxidize. Some evidence now exists that humic acids isolated from these varied sources do indeed contain several common peripheral structures (2, II, 16), but by any more discriminating test, the term possesses little chemical significance or fixed meaning. 

Operationally, it is common to define HS in terms of the methods used to extract or isolate them from soils, sediments, and natural waters. The classic soil extraction procedure yields three main fractions humic acid [also defined as high-molecular-weight (HMW) or high-molecular-size (HMS) fraction], fulvic acid (FA) [also defined as low-molecular-weight (LMW) or low-molecular-size (LMS) fraction], and humin. These fractions are defined in terms of their solubility in aqueous media as a function of pH or in terms of their extractability from soils or sediments as a function of the pH of the extracting medium. Humic acid is the fraction of HS that is not soluble in water under acidic conditions, but becomes soluble (or extractable) at higher pH values. Fulvic acid is the fraction that is soluble in aqueous media at all pH values. Humin represents the fraction that is not soluble in an aqueous medium (or is not extractable with an aqueous medium) at any pH value. Actually, humin consists of an aggregate of humic and nonhumic materials (Rice and Mac-... 

A number of poorly defined terms have been used for distinguishing various types of colorant that may occur in sugar materials. It appears probable that precise spectrophotometry may eventually help to show whether the distinctions which have been made between the various colorants (such as caramels, humin, humic acids, melanoidins, etc.) are justified from this point of view. 

Humic substances are a broad class of organic compounds operationaUy defined by their solubility at different pHs and retention on hydrophobic resins (Aiken, 1988 Thurman, 1985). There are three operational sub-categories of humic substances humic acids, which are soluble at a higher pH but become insoluble at a pH < 2 (isolated using XAD-8 resin) fulvic acids, which are hydrophilic acids soluble under aU pH conditions (isolated using XAD-4 resin), and humin, which is insoluble at any pH (Ishiwatari, 1992). For a review of humic substances in aquatic systems, see Hessen and Tranvik (1998), Benner (2002), and Chapter 3 by Aluwihare and Meador, this volume. 

Based on detailed analyses of the chemical nature of SOM, Hatcher and Spiker (1988) have extended this humification model to include other resistant biopolymers, including plant cutin and suberin, and microbial melanins and paraffinic macromolecules. During decomposition, these biopolymers are selectively preserved and modified to become part of what can be operationally defined as humin (acid and alkali insoluble component of humus) (Hatcher and Spiker, 1988 Rice, 2001). The humin becomes progressively enriched in acidic groups leading to the formation of first humic acids and then fulvic acids, which under this degradative scheme of SOM formation would be regarded as the most humified of humic substances (Stevenson, 1994). 

Humic acids are those humic substances that are precipitated at pH = 1. Fulvic acids stay in solution at pH = 1 they contain more —COOH and —OH groups than humic acids. Dissolved organic acids, which are not retained by a nonionic XAD resin, are hydrophilic acids, they are not very well defined They contain, in addition to single aliphatic acids, uronic and polyuronic acids. 

Multiple Adsorbates Adsorption isotherms are defined for individual adsorbate species. Collective parameters like DOC, phenols, and humic acids can only be used empirically as adsorbate parameters. Adsorption isotherms with collective parameters cannot be used for simple mechanistic interpretation of the data, even if these data can be fitted to such equations (Tomaic and Zutic, 1988). 

It is of interest to note that the particle size gap supplies a rational basis to the traditional German classification scheme of defining humic acid and humins on the basis of a particle size separation (filtration). 

Humic substances are those organic compounds found in the environment that cannot be classified as any other chemical class of compounds (e.g., polysaccharides, proteins, etc.). They are traditionally defined according to their solubilities. Fulvic acids are those organic materials that are soluble in water at all pH values. Humic acids are those materials that are insoluble at acidic pH values (pH < 2) but are soluble at higher pH values. Humin is the fraction of natural organic materials that is insoluble in water at all pH values. These definitions reflect the traditional methods for separating the different fractions from the original mixture. 

The single site model is used to describe the interactions between the cation and the humic acids (11). Since humic substances are heterogeneous and complex molecules, the ligand is defined as a monodentate site (A) with no particular assumption on its chemical nature. Complexes of 1 1 (metalication) stoichiometry are assumed to be formed according to the equilibrium ... 

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