Molecular structure of humus acids in soils

The molecular structure of humus acids remains one of the most challenging issues in the soil science. The focus of the current research lies in defining the molecular and supramolecular structure of soil humus acids. This paper provides a brief review of the current understanding of the problem and shares findings of the elemental and X‐ray structural analysis of humic and fulvic acids extracted from Chernozems and Chestnut soils in the Rostov region. This region occupies a large area of the South‐European Russia. Humic acids in the studied soils have reduced carbon content compared to average parameters for these soil types. The supramolecular organization of humic acids in three‐dimensional space contains two to four layers of condensed aromatic systems supplemented by a network of chain fragments of different regularity and length. Parameters of this structure vary for soils of different genesis and genetic horizons. However, interplanar distances are fixed in the range of 0.349 to 0.371 nm. Thickness of the carbon network band increases with the benzoidicity level of humic acids. The obtained results confirm the specific matrix structure of humic acid molecules. Considering currently available scarce data these findings are valuable and unique. Our findings are consistent with the general hypothesis about the supramolecular nature of humic substances.