Chemical and Microbial Interactions at Environmental Interfaces

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This Collaborative Research Activities in Environmental Molecular Science (CRAEMS) Award to Stanford University is supported by the Special Projects Office in the Chemistry Division. Gordon Brown, Scott Fendorf, and Alfred Spormann supported by this award will study the chemical and microbial interactions at environmental interfaces among solids, aqueous solutions, natural organic and plant matter, microorganisms and atmospheric gases. Support is also provided to Satish Myneni at Princeton University through a subaward. Model systems of increasing complexity will be studied with molecular-level probes to explore (1) geometric and electronic surface structures of environmentally relevant hydrated solids; (2) the structure of water at solid-aqueous interfaces and in the vicinity of nonpolar organic molecules absorbed on solid surfaces; (3) the mode of interaction of metal ion cations and oxoanions with these surfaces and with organic ligands and microbial organisms; (4) the structure and bonding of aqueous and surface complexes of these ions; (5) the rates of abiotic and biotic reaction pathways of redox-sensitive metalloids such as arsenic, selenium and uranium; (6) the hydrophobic interactions of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons with environmental solids at the molecular level; (7) the effects of microbial biofilm coatings on solids on the adsorption and transformation reactions of heavy metal and organic pollutants; and, (8) genomic-level interactions of microorganisms with mineral surfaces and organic and inorganic pollutants. Model studies will be coupled with laboratory studies of natural contaminated systems. Advanced spectroscopic methods, particularly those based on tunable synchrotron radiation, computational chemistry and molecular genomic technologies will be utilized.This fundamental interdisciplinary research will advance our understanding of the role of sorption/precipitation/transformation at environmental interfaces in sequestering heavy metal and organic pollutants and will lead to the development of new remediation methodology. The affiliation with the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory will also introduce environmental scientists and students to synchrotron-based studies in environmental chemistry.