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Updated: Aug 31, 2026

Quantification of Humic and Fulvic Acids in Humate Ores, DOC, Humified Materials and Humic Substance-Containing Commercial Products
Published on: March 18, 2022
Chemical species of Al reacting with soil humic acids
Syuntaro Hiradate1, Noriko U Yamaguchi
1National Institute for Agro-Environmental Sciences, 3-1-3 Kan-nondai, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8604, Japan. hiradate@affrc.go.jp
Abstract:
The formation and presence of aluminum tridecamer (Al(13), [AlO(4)Al(12)(OH)(24)(H(2)O)(12)](7+)) in solution was strongly inhibited by soil humic acids (HA), as shown by liquid-state 27Al-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analyses. It was also observed that Al(13) coprecipitated with HA in the form of Al(13)-HA complexes, as shown by solid-state magic angle spinning (MAS) 27Al-NMR analyses. Tetrahedral Al in the Al(13)-HA complexes was gradually converted to octahedral Al, indicating that Al(13) in Al(13)-HA complexes was decomposed into Al-HA complexes with reaction time. When HA was present in the acidic Al solution before the partial neutralization, the precipitates formed after the partial neutralization did not contain any tetrahedral Al, indicating the absence of Al(13) and that HA is a strong inhibitor of Al(13) formation. These results indicate that Al(13) is not formed from Al complexed with soil HA after partial neutralization. If Al(13) was added to soils, it would preferentially form precipitates of non-phytotoxic Al(13)-HA complex in the presence of excess HA (i.e. a COOH/Al(13) molar ratio of more than 9) and gradually be converted to an octahedral Al-HA complex. Therefore, Al(13) is not a major plant-growth inhibitor in humus-rich acidic soils.
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