Investigation of marine and terrestrial humic substances by 1H and 13C nuclear magnetic resonance and infrared spectroscopy.

Abstract Humic acids were isolated from 5 sediments in which the origin nature of the organic matter are both typical and different. The humic acids were characterized on the basis of elemental compositions, infrared spectra and 1 H and 13 C NMR. This last technique, especially 13 C NMR, provides qualitative and semi-quantitative information regarding aromatic structure. Combined data from the three techniques permits differentiation of marine and terrestrial organic matter as well as identification of mixtures of humic acids from the two sources.