Supramolecular Formations of Humic Substance Molecules and Their Fractal Organization

Abstract

When studying water stability, it was found that when capillary contact of soils with water, spherical particles of several hundred nanometers in size are released from them into the water. Studies have shown that such particles pass into water from any humus–containing objects - soils, peat, humic acids, humates, fulvic acids. Elemental microanalysis of such particles isolated from sod-podzolic soil showed that they consist mainly of organic matter. These particles are previously repeatedly detected supramolecular formations (SF) from specific organic matter of soils. It is known that humic substances of soils are fractally organized, and in water they exist in the form of fractal clusters several hundred nanometers in size (F-clusters) formed by particles-molecules of humic substances about 10 nm in size. This allowed us to assume that the supramolecular formations isolated from humus-containing samples are F-clusters. Based on the high resistance of supramolecular formations of humic substances to decomposition into particles-molecules, it follows that humic substances in soils should have a fractal-cluster organization.