Reduction of Nitrogen-Oxygen Containing Contaminants (NOCs) in Aquatic Environments

有了这个奖项，化学系的环境化学科学计划正在资助天普大学的Huichun J. Zhang教授研究氮氧单键（N-O）作为可还原官能团在环境条件下的还原转化。 含氮-氧污染物（NOCs）进入水环境是一个重要的新兴水问题。 该项目旨在对国家石油公司进行准确的环境风险评估，并开发先进的技术来有效地处理国家石油公司污染的水和场地。 研究结果将有助于指导化工行业设计更环保的化工产品。 该项目旨在扩大代表性不足的少数民族和妇女在环境化学/工程领域的参与，并为这一跨学科领域的未来科学家和工程师提供培训。该项目的重点是通过实验和理论方法相结合，研究可溶性Fe（II）物种对各种NOC的还原动力学和机制。 先进的实验方法，包括动力学，电化学电池，同位素，光谱和色谱方法，将进行阐明NOC还原的关键基本步骤，如质子化，络合，电子转移和N-O键断裂。 通过表征沿反应途径沿着的相关基本步骤中的所有固定点来识别NOC的每个子集的最可能的速率限制步骤。 正在计算分子描述符，以发展定量的结构-活性关系，以便为社区提供与环境中N-O键对还原裂解的敏感性有关的可量化和实验接地的数字。

With this award, the Environmental Chemical Sciences Program of the Division of Chemistry is funding Professor Huichun J. Zhang of Temple University to examine the nitrogen-oxygen single bond (N-O) as a reducible functional group toward reductive transformations under environmental conditions. The introduction of N-O containing contaminants (NOCs) into aquatic environments is an important emerging water issue. This project aims to develop accurate environmental risk assessment of NOCs and to develop advanced technologies to effectively treat NOCs contaminated water and sites. The findings are expected to help guide the chemical industry to design more environmentally-friendly chemical products. The project is expected to broaden participation from underrepresented minorities and women in environmental chemistry/engineering and to provide training for future scientists and engineers in this cross-disciplinary area.This project focuses on examining reduction kinetics and mechanisms of a diverse range of NOCs by soluble Fe(II) species through a combination of experimental and theoretical approaches. Advanced experimental approaches, including kinetic, electrochemical cell, isotopic, spectroscopic and chromatographic approaches, are to be conducted to elucidate key elementary steps in NOC reductions, such as protonation, complexation, electron transfer and N-O bond cleavage. The most likely rate-limiting step of each subset of NOCs is to be identified by characterizing all of the stationary points in the relevant elementary steps along the reaction pathway. Molecular descriptors are being computed to develop quantitative structure-activity relationships so as to provide the community with quantifiable and experimentally grounded numbers that pertain to the susceptibility of N-O bonds to reductive cleavage in the environment.