Comparability of composition of carbon functional groups in humic acids between inverse-gated decoupling and cross polarization/magic angle spinning 13C nuclear magnetic resonance techniques

To find a certain relation between the composition of carbon functional groups of humic acids derived from liquid state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra acquired with inverse-gated decoupling (IGD), known as a quantitative pulse sequence, and that by solid-state 13C NMR with cross polarization/magic angle spinning (CPMAS) techniques, fifteen soil humic acid samples with a wide range of aromaticity were analyzed. Relationships between the proportions of humic acid carbon as alkyl, O-alkyl, and aromatic carbon assessed by the two methods could be regressed to y = ax (r = 0.932–0.956; P < 0.005), respectively. The contents of alkyl, O-alkyl, and aromatic carbon assessed by CPMAS method were larger than those found by IGD method. However, the differences between the two methods were small and exclusive regression to y = x was also significant (r = 0.775–0.941; P < 0.005). Aromaticity calculated from 13C CPMAS NMR data also did not differ significantly from those computed from 13C NMR spectra with IGD. These observations indicated the comparability of the relative content of carbon functional groups in humic acids except for carboxyl and carbonyl carbon.