Issue 4, 2014

The importance of charge-transfer interactions in determining chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical and photochemical properties

Abstract

Absorption of sunlight by chromophoric dissolved natural organic matter (CDOM) is environmentally significant because it controls photic zone depth and causes photochemistry that affects elemental cycling and contaminant fate. Both the optics (absorbance and fluorescence) and photochemistry of CDOM display unusual properties that cannot easily be ascribed to a superposition of individual chromophores. These include (i) broad, unstructured absorbance that decreases monotonically well into the visible and near IR, (ii) fluorescence emission spectra that all fall into a single envelope regardless of the excitation wavelength, and (iii) photobleaching and photochemical quantum yields that decrease monotonically with increasing wavelength. In contrast to a simple superposition model, these phenomena and others can be reasonably well explained by a physical model in which charge-transfer interactions between electron donating and accepting chromophores within the CDOM control the optical and photophysical properties. This review summarizes current understanding of the processes underlying CDOM photophysics and photochemistry as well as their physical basis.

Graphical abstract: The importance of charge-transfer interactions in determining chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical and photochemical properties

Article information

Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
31 Oct 2013
Accepted
30 Jan 2014
First published
07 Feb 2014

Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2014,16, 654-671

Author version available

The importance of charge-transfer interactions in determining chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical and photochemical properties

C. M. Sharpless and N. V. Blough, Environ. Sci.: Processes Impacts, 2014, 16, 654 DOI: 10.1039/C3EM00573A

To request permission to reproduce material from this article, please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

If you are an author contributing to an RSC publication, you do not need to request permission provided correct acknowledgement is given.

If you are the author of this article, you do not need to request permission to reproduce figures and diagrams provided correct acknowledgement is given. If you want to reproduce the whole article in a third-party publication (excluding your thesis/dissertation for which permission is not required) please go to the Copyright Clearance Center request page.

Read more about how to correctly acknowledge RSC content.

Social activity

Spotlight

Advertisements