An efficient headspace gas chromatographic technique for determining humic acid content in fertilizer

A fast, convenient and commercially available approach for analyzing humic acid content in fertilizer using headspace gas chromatography (HS-GC) is presented in this paper. Humic acid is converted into carbon dioxide based on the oxidation of humic acid in strong acidic medium and can be measured via automatic HS-GC. Conditions for the alkaline extraction and the humic acid oxidation process are also optimized. The new technique proved to be precise (RSD ≤ 3.59%) and accurate (relative errors≤9.46% as compared with the spectrophotometric approach). The newly established technique presents a practical tool to routinely analyze humic acid content in fertilizer during the fertilizer production.