Humus Analysis

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Humus is formed from the residues of plants and animals (that fall in the soil) after decomposition by microbial metabolism in the soil and is widely found in soil, water bodies, and sediments.

Humus Analysis

Soil humus is the main source of essential nutrients for plants, which can promote the physiological activity of plants and microorganisms, increase soil water storage, water retention, and fertilization capacity, promote the formation of good soil structure, improve soil buffering and acidity and alkalinity, and also complex heavy metal ions in the soil and eliminate the residual toxicity of pesticides in the soil. Therefore, the study of soil humus has become one of the current hot spots in the fields of soil science, environmental chemistry, and geochemistry.

There are various ways to classify humic substances, according to the solubility of humic substances can be divided into humic acid (HA, only soluble in alkali but not in acid), fulvic acid (FA, i.e. soluble in acid and alkali), and humin (insoluble in both acid and alkali).

Soil humus is a multi-organism system, and Lifeasible uses a variety of modern instrumentation techniques to accurately analyze it, as well as targeted improvements in separation methods based on our extensive experience, providing a comprehensive and accurate technical service for soil humus research.

Soil humus analysis projects we offer (continuously updated)

Projects	Methods
Humus content analysis	Lifeasible can determine the humic content (e.g., humic acid and fulvic acid) of soil samples using redox titration.
Humus degradation	Hydrolysis methods Reduction and oxidation methods Pyrolysis reaction Hydrolysis and redox methods often require the purification of humic substances, which not only increases the number of experimental steps but also may change the nature and composition of humic substances. Pyrolysis can overcome these disadvantages, as the sample is pyrolyzed directly in a vacuum column, the ash material does not interfere with the experiment, and finally, Lifeasible uses Py-FIMS (pyrolysis-field ionization mass spectrometry) to detect the pyrolysis products to provide basic structural information of the humus molecules.
Molecular weight determination	Viscosity method The osmotic pressure determination method Ultracentrifugation method Gel filtration method Laser scattering Field desorption mass spectrometry
Identification of functional groups	FTIR (fourier transform infrared spectrometry) ¹³C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectrometry Electron spin resonance spectroscopy Pyrolysis-gas chromatography Pyrolysis-mass spectrometry pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry pyrolysis FTIR spectrometry Titration
Determination of bonding relationships	Cation exchange method Fluorescence method Photoacoustic spectrometry Osmosis Potentiometric titration
Humus spectral analysis	NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy) ¹³C-NMR ¹⁵N-NMR ¹H-NMR IR (Infrared spectroscopy) This is one of the main tools for qualitative analysis of functional groups of organic compounds. Lifeasible determines the presence of certain functional groups based on the peak position, peak intensity, and peak shape of the IR absorption curve. Simultaneous fluorescence spectroscopy This method is a sensitive and non-destructive analytical method with the advantages of simple spectra, narrow bands, low interferents, and high selectivity and sensitivity. Electron spin resonance spectroscopy This method has the advantages of no damage to the sample molecules, no effect on the chemical reaction process, high sensitivity, and is especially suitable for the study of chemically active and short-lived radicals and transition metal compounds and complexes.

Lifeasible uses a variety of techniques to accurately analyze the nature and composition of humus, the differences between the various components of humus and the reticulation model of humus, etc., providing researchers with a comprehensive and diverse technical service for soil humus. If you are interested in the above, please also contact our staff for more information.

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