NMR study of the role of water in contaminant uptake into clean and contaminated soils

dc.contributor.advisorLangford, Cooper H.
dc.contributor.authorTodoruk, Tiona Ruth
dc.date.accessioned2005-08-19T21:09:09Z
dc.date.available2005-08-19T21:09:09Z
dc.date.issued2003
dc.descriptionBibliography: p. 209en
dc.description.abstractA major problem for the environment today is soil contamination. Recently, it was proposed that water penetration controlled "non-labile" uptake of contaminants into soils. An in depth look at this proposal, however, suggested that soil wetting processes themselves were not well understood. Therefore, a detailed study of water interaction with air-dried clean soils, soil components, artificial soils, contaminated wettable soils and contaminated water repellent soils was undertaken. Mechanisms for soil wetting, which suggest conformational rearrangement and processes with energies on the order of chemical processes, are proposed. Also, necessary conditions for the development of water repellency in soils, which involves a critical level of contamination and a critical climatic event, are proposed. A further study of trace xenobiotic uptake was also pursued. For this, a new method of monitoring kinetic sorption processes was developed using fluorescence. Because of the limitations associated with fluorescence (specifically, the requirement that molecules must contain a significant quantity of chromophores in order to display fluorescence which consequently, often results in an increased molecular size), a larger molecule than had been previously studied in these laboratories was monitored. A multicomponent study of sorption into clean, wettable but contaminated and water repellent soils led to the conclusion that water does exercise control over "non-labile" uptake. However, for the large molecule used, "non-labile" sorption was significantly faster than in other studies, and did not correlate at all with wetting processes. This led to a survey of the literature that yielded the surprising result that contaminant uptake has a strong dependence on contaminant size. This appears to be more significant than many other factors, including water uptake. Finally, to support the mechanisms that had been proposed for water uptake and the development of water repellency, molecular modeling work on building block structures was done. Monomer units of the Steelink structures were used to simulate soils, rather than the conventional large polymer. Using a Monte Carlo approach resulted in a reasonable set of conformers. Calculations illustrate molecular mechanisms for proposed wetting and development of water repellency mechanisms.
dc.format.extentxxii, 236 leaves : ill. ; 30 cm.en
dc.identifier.citationTodoruk, T. R. (2003). NMR study of the role of water in contaminant uptake into clean and contaminated soils (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/13202en_US
dc.identifier.doihttp://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/13202
dc.identifier.isbn0612870855en
dc.identifier.lccAC1 .T484 2003 T63en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1880/42824
dc.language.isoeng
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Calgaryen
dc.publisher.placeCalgaryen
dc.rightsUniversity of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.
dc.titleNMR study of the role of water in contaminant uptake into clean and contaminated soils
dc.typedoctoral thesis
thesis.degree.disciplineChemistry
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Calgary
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
ucalgary.item.requestcopytrue
ucalgary.thesis.accessionTheses Collection 58.002:Box 1476 520708911
ucalgary.thesis.notesUARCen
ucalgary.thesis.uarcreleaseyen
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