Advanced CPMAS-13C NMR techniques for molecular characterization of size-separated fractions from a soil humic acid

A humic acid extracted from a volcanic soil was subjected to preparative high-performance size-exclusion chromatography (HPSEC) to reduce its molecular complexity and eleven different size fractions were obtained. Cross-polarization magic-angle spinning 13C NMR (CPMAS 13C NMR) analysis performed with variable contact-time (VCT) pulse sequences showed that the largest molecular-size fractions contained aromatic, alkyl, and carbohydrate-like components. The carbohydrate-like content and the alkyl chain length seemed to decrease with decreasing molecular size. Progressive reduction of aromatic carbon atoms was also observed with decreasing molecular size of the separated fractions. Mathematical treatment of the results from VCT experiments enabled cross polarization (T (CH)) and proton spin-lattice relaxation (T(1rho)(H)) times to be related to structural differences among the size fractions. The conformational distribution indicated that the eleven size fractions could be allocated to two main groups. The first group, with larger nominal molecular sizes, was characterized by molecular domains with slower local molecular motion. The second group of size fractions, with smaller nominal molecular sizes, was characterized by a larger number of molecular domains with faster local molecular motion. The T (CH) and (T(1rho)(H)) values suggested that either condensed or strongly associated aromatic systems were predominant in the size fractions with the largest apparent molecular dimensions.