Metal binding to organic matter

F. V. MOLINA

Adsorption of Heavy Metals by Minerals, Biomass and Microbiological Materials

John Wiley

Lugar: Nueva York; Año: 2015;

Natural organic matter (NOM) is a complex, highly heterogeneous mixture of organic compounds such as aromatic, aliphatic, phenolic, and quinonic structures, among others, with varying molecular sizes and properties. It is, however, difficult to give a unique definition. Soil organic matter (SOM) has been defined as the sum of all natural and thermally altered biologically derived organic material found in the soil, or on the soil surface, irrespective of its source, whether it is living or dead, or stage of decomposition, but excluding the above ground portion of living plants; this is a rather wide definition, specially because it includes living biomass. However, many studies regarding SOM (and NOM in general) do not address biomass. On the other hand, aquatic NOM, generally referred to as dissolved organic matter (DOM) is usually defined as all organics passing through a 0.45 um filter; aquatic organic matter not passing thru is known as particulate organic matter (POM), albeit it is less studied.