EAGER: A Novel Approach for Molecular-Scale Probing of Hierarchical Organic Assemblies at Mineral Interfaces

在这项热切的提议中，康奈尔大学的Ludmila Aristilde教授使用了来自分子生物学和分子表面化学这两个不同领域的实验工具的新组合，目的是了解环境化学。具体地说，研究人员试图了解有机生物分子如何在矿物表面发生反应。这项研究对于理解有机物(叶、茎、根等的碳)在环境中被回收利用。这个高风险的项目关注的是碳在土壤中的基本储存方式。阿里斯蒂尔德教授还在开发一门新的课程，其中包括实验室模块，向学生介绍天然颗粒表面化学的研究以及纳米技术在研究这些表面方面的应用。她在她的实验室为本科生提供研究机会，特别是女性和代表不足的少数族裔。本课题在环境化学、环境工程、地球生物学和低温地球化学等学科的支持下，对土壤矿质有机质的形成机制、稳定性和归宿进行了研究。这项研究对全球碳循环有影响。分析技术的结合是新颖的，代表了一种独特的跨学科方法，特别是在研究工具来自不同学科、生物学和分子表面化学的情况下。探索了一种使用生物催化平台在复杂有机基质的稳定同位素标记谱中产生高选择性的廉价方法。本项目利用细菌的新陈代谢，利用稳定同位素增强的多维核磁共振波谱，实现了有机矿物和有机有机物的新型分子探针。这个高风险、高回报的项目从复杂有机基质的双同位素标记版本中获得选择性。

In this EAGER proposal, Professor Ludmilla Aristilde of Cornell University uses a novel combination of experimental tools adopted from two different fields, molecular biology and molecular surface chemistry, with the aim of understanding environmental chemistry . Specifically, the researchers seek to understand how organic biomolecules react on mineral surfaces. This study is important to understand how organic matter (carbon from leaves, stems, roots, etc.) is recycled in the environment. This high risk project focuses on how carbon is stored in soil on a fundamental level. Professor Aristilde is also developing a new course offering, which includes laboratory modules, to introduce students both to the study of surface chemistry of natural particles and to the application of nanotechnologies to study these surfaces. She provides research opportunities in her lab for undergraduate students, especially women and underrepresented minorities. In this project, supported by the Environmental Chemical Sciences, Environmental Engineering, and Geobiology and Low Temperature Geochemistry Programs, the mechanisms, stability, and fate of mineral-associated soil organic matter is studied. This research has implications on the global carbon cycle. The combination of the analytical techniques is novel and represents a unique, interdisciplinary approach, especially as the research tools are borrowed from different disciplines, biology and molecular surface chemistry. An inexpensive approach for generating high selectivity in the stable-isotope labeling profile of a complex organic matrix using a biocatalytic platform is explored. This project uses bacterial metabolism to achieve new molecular probes for organo-mineral and organo-organo entities using stable isotope-enhanced multi-dimensional Nuclear Magnetic Resonance spectroscopy. This high-risk, high-reward project obtains selectivity from dually isotopically-labeled versions of a complex organic matrix.