International Postdoctoral Fellows Program: Interactions of Macropolymers with Microcolloids in Aqueous Systems

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This award is under the International Postdoctoral Fellows Program, which enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct three to twelve months of research at foreign centers of proven excellence. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad. This award will support a twelve-month postdoctoral research visit by Dr. Jon D. Chorover of the University of California, Berkeley, to work with Professor Jacques Buffle of the University of Geneva in Switzerland. The transport of chemicals in natural aquatic systems is regulated by the partitioning of solutes between the solid and aqueous phases. Colloids, the smallest of the solid particles, may be readily entrained and transported by the mobile fluid, thereby providing transport for sorbed inorganic and organic adsorptives. Although colloid mediated transport is considered an important mechanism for contaminant transport, the basic processes affecting colloidal behavior are poorly understood. Organic-polymer/inoranic colloid associations are ubiquitous in natural aquatic and soil systems and these aggregates have profoundly different colloidal properties than the inorganic particles alone. The technology for in situ study of colloidal systems has improved dramatically over the last decade, yet the effects of experimental artifacts are not well known. Careful investigations of colloidal structure and stability therefore incorporate several complimentary analyses. In the proposed project, Dr. Chorover and Professor Buffle will study interactions between anionic macropolymers and inorganic microcolloids. The award recommendation provides funds to cover international travel, a stipend for twelve months, travel to meetings, and a dependent allowance for Dr. Chorover's family.