Collaborative Research: Gaining a molecular level understanding of the sorption of model organic molecules to engineered soil surrogates

化学系环境化学科学项目对该项目的资助将使路易斯安那州立大学（LSU）的Robert Cook和大卫斯皮瓦克教授以及宾夕法尼亚州立大学（PSU）的Karl Mueller教授能够向博士后研究员、研究生和本科生介绍涉及有机化学、分析化学和环境化学的跨学科研究。招聘将侧重于来自代表性不足群体的学生，他们将被介绍给环境化学问题的复杂性。在他的研究生水平的聚合物合成课程中，斯皮瓦克教授将展示如何使用新兴的聚合物合成方法来模拟自然界的一些复杂性，并有助于环境化学。教授库克（路易斯安那州立大学）和穆勒（PSU），他们都教高级环境化学课程，将纳入本奖项中开发的研究结果和方法，以说明基本化学相互作用如何适用于环境系统，以及它们如何在确定环境中人为化学品的命运和运输中发挥作用。该项目旨在通过研究工程土壤替代物（ESS）对模型农药分子的吸收，在分子水平上了解农药如何与土壤相互作用。替代物将通过用不同成分和极性的有机部分功能化已知的矿物表面来合成，与真实的土壤中发现的那些相呼应。同样，将不同极性和化学组成的氟化农药与一系列NMR方法结合使用，将能够在分子水平上表征相互作用。NMR实验将通过批量吸附研究进行指导和补充，该研究将报告相应的宏观行为。这项工作的更广泛的影响包括改进归宿和运输模型，更好的农药使用和设计实践，以及增加对非共价相互作用的理解。这些详细的研究将为污染物如何与土壤相互作用和联系提供分子水平的见解。

The funding of this project by the Environmental Chemical Sciences program in the Division of Chemistry will enable Professors Robert Cook and David Spivak of Louisiana State University (LSU) and Karl Mueller of Pennsylvania State University (PSU) to introduce a postdoctoral fellow, graduate students, and undergraduate students to interdisciplinary research involving organic, analytical, and environmental chemistry. Recruitment will focus on students from underrepresented groups who will be introduced to the complexity of environmental chemical issues. In his graduate-level polymer synthesis class, Professor Spivak will show how emerging methods of polymer synthesis can be used to mimic some of nature's complexity and can aid environmental chemistry. Professors Cook (LSU) and Mueller (PSU), both of whom teach senior-level environmental chemistry courses, will incorporate findings and approaches developed in this award to illustrate how fundamental chemical interactions apply to environmental systems and how they play a role in the determination of the fate and transport of anthropogenic chemicals in the environment. This project is aimed at a molecular level understanding of how pesticides interact with soils by studying the uptake of model pesticide molecules by engineered soil surrogates (ESS). Surrogates will be synthesized by functionalizing known mineral surfaces with organic moieties of varying composition and polarity, echoing those found in real soil. Similarly, incorporating fluorinated pesticides of varied polarities and chemical compositions, in concert with a range of NMR methods, will enable molecular level characterization of the interactions. The NMR experiments will be guided and complemented by batch sorption studies, which will report the corresponding macroscopic behavior. Broader impacts of this work include improvement of fate and transport modeling, better practices for pesticide use and design, and an increased understanding of non-covalent interactions. These detailed studies will provide molecular level insights into how pollutants interact and associate with soils.