Characterization of environmental contaminants using nuclear magnetic resonance

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The current practice for characterizing environmental contaminants relies largely on targeted analysis of a selected set of compounds that have been physically extracted from an environmental media, such as a soil or groundwater sample. These approaches are largely limited in their ability to differentiate between bound and free forms of a contaminant in a soil or sediment without performing extractions that physically change the sample, thus impacting the reliability of the analytical information when used in environmental risk assessments. Full knowledge of the mechanisms through which these compounds interact with geological materials (e.g., complexed with minerals, bound to organic matter in the soil, etc.) is vital for understanding the mechanisms involved in contaminant degradation, and for understanding the possible environmental impacts of these compounds including the potential human/ecological exposure mechanisms. Novel methods to characterize environmental samples as is are required to improve our understanding of the true behavior of compounds in environmental media and improve remedial design making.