Abstract
The ideal tool for the analysis of soil organic matter would enable structural group analysis to be performed on whole soil samples in a non-destructive manner. However, up till now, there have been no adequate techniques available to characterize the structure of amorphous humic compounds in the solid state. Moreover, it has not been possible to dissolve all the organic material from the soil and obtain soluble material for analysis without chemical alteration during solvent extraction or pyrolysis. Although conventional NMR spectra of amorphous solids reveal no structural information due to large dipolar interactions, the use of high power cross-polarization (CP) techniques1 has overcome difficulties in obtaining 13C NMR spectra of solids to the extent that spectra can be obtained in much shorter times and organic functional groups partly resolved. We now report the first recorded 13C NMR spectra of whole soils and show that this technique has the potential for structural analysis of organic matter in solid soil samples.
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Barron, P., Wilson, M., Stephens, J. et al. Cross-polarization 13C NMR spectroscopy of whole soils. Nature 286, 585–587 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/286585a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/286585a0
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