U.S.-Germany Cooperative Research: Characterization of Arsenic-Containing Compounds in Soils and Groundwater

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This award supports Drs. Carol Haney, Dale Sayers, Dean Hesterberg and a graduate student from the North Carolina State University in a collaboration with Norbert Stoll of the Department of Automation Engineering at the University of Rostock. The collaboration brings together the complementary capabilities of the German and U.S. groups to develop methods for the extraction, preparation, and analysis of soil and water samples containing arsenic. The samples will be collected from a World War II chemical weapons manufacture site in the eastern part of Germany. Preliminary indications are that the site has significant contamination from both organic and inorganic arsenic compounds. The goals of the research are a complete characterization of the arsenic-containing compounds at the site, determination of the mechanisms by which organic arsenic compounds are transformed into inorganic compounds in different locations and soil types, and development of remediation techniques. Analytical methods to be used are gas chromatography, high-pressure liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy.