Interactions between natural organic matter and organic pollutants as revealed by NMR spectroscopy

Natural organic matter (NOM) plays a critical role in regulating the transport and the fate of organic contaminants in the environment. NMR spectroscopy is a powerful technique for the investigation of the sorption and binding mechanisms between NOM and pollutants, as well as their mutual chemical transformations. Despite NMR relatively low sensibility but due to its wide versatility to investigating samples in the liquid, gel, and solid phases, NMR application to environmental NOM–pollutants relations enables the achievement of specific and complementary molecular information. This report is a brief outline of the potentialities of the different NMR techniques and pulse sequences to elucidate the interactions between NOM and organic pollutants, with and without their labeling with nuclei that enhance NMR sensitivity. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Natural organic matter (NOM) plays a critical role in regulating the transport and the fate of organic contaminants in the environment. Being NMR spectroscopy a powerful technique for the investigation of the sorption and binding mechanisms, this review outlines the potentialities of the different NMR techniques and pulse sequences (in liquid, gel, and solid phases) to elucidate the interactions between NOM and organic pollutants, with and without their labeling with nuclei that enhance NMR sensitivity.