Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Depolymerization of chromophoric natural organic matter.

James Thomson1, Adele Parkinson, Felicity A Roddick

  • 1School of Civil and Chemical Engineering, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476V, Melbourne, Victoria 3001, Australia.

Environmental Science & Technology
|July 21, 2004
PubMed
Summary

Investigating natural organic matter (NOM) structure reveals repeating units. UV irradiation fragments larger NOM molecules faster, suggesting photolabile bonds and aiding water treatment strategies.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

A new use of Agrobacterium plant growth regulator genes for plant bioengineering.

Frontiers in plant science·2026
Same author

Development of a deep neural network model for simultaneous analysis of extracellular analyte gradients for a population of cells.

Artificial intelligence in the life sciences·2026
Same author

Diploid assembly of the Mexican lime genome.

G3 (Bethesda, Md.)·2025
Same author

Interlaboratory Study to Minimize Wavelength Calibration Uncertainty Due to Peak Fitting of Reference Material Spectra in Raman Spectroscopy.

Applied spectroscopy·2025
Same author

PED-TV: educational videos in the waiting area-a quality improvement project.

Archives of disease in childhood. Education and practice edition·2025
Same author

Serial KinderMiner (SKiM) discovers and annotates biomedical knowledge using co-occurrence and transformer models.

BMC bioinformatics·2023

Area of Science:

  • Environmental Chemistry
  • Water Treatment Science
  • Organic Geochemistry

Background:

  • Natural organic matter (NOM) significantly impacts aquatic environments and drinking water quality.
  • The precise molecular structure of NOM remains poorly understood, hindering effective treatment.
  • Chromophoric NOM molecules are key targets for understanding NOM structure and reactivity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To elucidate the structural characteristics of chromophoric NOM molecules.
  • To investigate NOM fragmentation patterns induced by various chemical and physical treatments.
  • To correlate NOM fragmentation with molecular size and light absorption properties.

Main Methods:

  • Studied fragmentation patterns of NOM using irradiation (185-400 nm), hydroxyl radicals, chlorine, ozone, and fungal breakdown.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Employed size exclusion chromatography to monitor NOM size distributions in natural waters and isolates.
  • Analyzed chromophore fragmentation in relation to molecular weight and treatment type.

    • Main Results:

    • Observed distinct fragmentation patterns: ozone (non-size specific), UV irradiation (> or = 254 nm) (preferential removal of high molecular weight), and hydroxyl radical (intermediate size specificity).
    • UV-induced fragmentation aligns with a trimer depolymerization model, indicating repeating structural units linked by photolabile bonds.
    • Larger chromophores reacted faster due to higher molar absorptivities, absorbing more photons and initiating fragmentation.

    Conclusions:

    • NOM likely possesses repeating structural units connected by photolabile bonds, as supported by UV fragmentation data.
    • Molecular size is a critical factor influencing NOM reactivity, particularly under UV irradiation.
    • Understanding these size-dependent photochemical reactions can optimize NOM removal in water treatment processes.