Hydration of natural organic matter: effect on sorption of organic compounds by humin and humic acid fractions vs original peat material

Natural organic matter (NOM) hydration is found to change activity-based sorption of test organic compounds by as much as 2-3 orders of magnitude, depending on the compound and the specific NOM sorbent. This is demonstrated for sorption on humin, humic acid, and the NOM source material. Hydration assistance in organic compound sorption correlates with the ability of the sorbate to interact strongly with hydrated sorbents, demonstrating the important role of noncovalent polar links in organizing the sorbent structure. Differences in hydration effect between the sorbents are caused mainly by differences in compound-sorbent interactions in the dry state. For a given compound, hydration of the sorbent tends to equalize the sorption capability of the three sorbents. No correlation was found between the strength of sorbate-sorbent interactions or the type of sorbate functional groups and the extent of sorption nonlinearity. Sorption nonlinearity compared over the same sorbed concentration range is greater on the original NOM than on either of the two extracted fractions. In elucidating sorption mechanisms on hydrated NOM, it is important to explicitly consider the participation of water molecules in organic compound interactions in the NOM phase.