Project 4
Chemical Intervention Strategies
Project Investigator: Timopthy D. Phillips
Notable concerns about the quality and safety of our environment have evoked a growing awareness of the significant hazards associated with diverse organic and metal pollutants in groundwater associated with Superfund sites. Many of these prioritized target chemicals (TCs) can have severe and long lasting effects on health. The scope of the problem is broader still, since TCs routinely occur as complex chemical mixtures, the toxicities and interactions of which are ill-defined.
Clearly, appropriate chemical intervention strategies for the remediation of polluted groundwater and the prevention of TC-induced disease in humans and animals are high priorities. Methods to hybridize and immobilize clay and zeolitic minerals onto solid supports such as carbon, silica and other diverse matrices are being developed and investigated in Project 5. Importantly, these clay-based sorbents are porous, "water permeable" and multifunctional in their ability to remove diverse organic, inorganic and microbial pollutants from water (see figure).
We are also developing and investigating nanostructured, thin-film composites that consist of exfoliated clay platelets anchored onto the surface of silica using diverse electrostatic glues. Applications of this research are numerous and include: water purification, diagnostic testing and molecular dosimetry biomarkers for the determination of human and animal exposure to pollutants, as well as the manufacture of microarray biochips for gene identification and cell immobilization. Another area of active research within Project 5 includes the chemical degradation of PAHs using a novel source of ozone. Products of ozonation are analyzed and identified; detoxification of PAHs is confirmed using a variety of toxin-sensitive bioassays.
Highlights