Geochemistry/Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Science
Molecular-level processes, such as aqueous complexation, adsorption to different mineral phases, or microbial reduction of redox active metals, often control the transport and fate of contaminants in the natural environment. These processes occur in chemically and physically heterogeneous subsurface environments. Understanding the structure, chemistry, and nanoscale geometric properties of mineral/water and microbe/mineral interfaces is critical to a mechanistic understanding of subsurface reactivity and contaminant transport. As a result, molecular-level studies of interfacial geochemistry and biogeochemical reactions have been an active area of research for more than a decade. Unraveling these phenomena at the molecular level to determine their impact on contaminant migration and transformation is a key objective of this science theme.
Research in this science theme addresses some of the most challenging issues confronting the nation, including the safe and cost-effective management of environmental pollutants, the safe disposal of energy production by-products, nuclear waste, and green house gases. Solutions to these issues are critical both for deploying new energy technologies for the nation and for maintaining a sustainable natural environment.
Additional Information
This science theme will focus EMSL's scientific resources on the following key topical areas:
- Linking molecular-scale processes to reactive transport: This topic area is focused on molecular to microscale processes principally related to how advection or diffusion at the microscale impacts mineral dissolution rates, cell growth and biofilm formation, and particle aggregation and transport.
- Defining the interplay between geochemistry and the structure and activities of microbial communities: There is a need to understand how microbial community structures vary in space and time and how such changes relate to changes in geochemical conditions and microbial interactions with earth materials and environmental contaminants, including radionuclides.
- Biogeotransformations of organic contaminants and natural organic matter: This topical area focuses on the transformations and transport of refractory organic compounds in the environment. Research centers on both the release of anthropogenic organic compounds into the subsurface environment, including sequestration of green house gases, as well as the study of fate and transport of natural, refractory organics.
- Nano-sensing for in situ characterization: This topic area is focused on both the development of nanoprobes to ascertain chemical conditions in geochemical or microbial microenvironments and their applicability to sensing field-scale conditions.
- Chemical and biological interactions at complex interfaces: This topic area includes interactions that may lead to contaminant sequestration at the microbe-mineral interface, determination of reaction rates in natural geochemical systems, and metal/ligand exchange dynamics at interfaces. An overall emphasis is placed on moving the current predictive capabilities from equilibrium-based assumptions to a more reaction rate approach based upon the underlying molecular phenomena.
Research in the area of biogeochemistry and subsurface science is well established at EMSL and will be expanded by creating advanced capabilities to determine the chemical form of contaminants, including radionuclides, in complex subsurface materials; developing a fundamental understanding of dynamic interfacial processes and their impact on observed reactivity; and improving the linkage of fundamental studies of molecular geochemistry/biogeochemistry to field-scale transport processes.
All Related Publications Related Publications
- Parallel Implementation of Gamma-Point Pseudopotential Plane-Wave DFT with Exact Exchange.
- Recovery of Iron/Iron Oxide Nanoparticles from Solution: Comparison of Methods and their Effects.
- Injection of Zero Valent Iron into an Unconfined Aquifer Using Shear-Thinning Fluids.
- Computational methods for intramolecular electron transfer in a ferrous-ferric iron complex.
- Thioarsenides: A case for long-range Lewis acid-base-directed van der Waals interactions.
Related Science Highlights
- New geometric method developed for evaluating metal nanoparticles on tubular structures (Viewing the Tube in 3D)
- Atomic force microscope enables in situ imaging of mineral-fluid interfaces in supercritical carbon dioxide (New Views of High-pressure Meetings)
- Scientists build realistic simulations for studying subsurface pollutants (Modeling the Micro Scale)
- Assessment of biostimulation processes offers a new look at uranium reduction (Dirt Dynamics)
- Scientists connect previous studies on electron transport in hematite (Grow Iron, Slow Pollution)
Geochemistry/Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Science Capabilities Available at EMSL
Below is a full listing of resources that are available for Geochemistry/Biogeochemistry and Subsurface Science research projects. Users are especially encouraged to review the many new capabilities applicable to projects in this Science Theme.
To help with proposal planning, icons in the table below indicate instrument availability:
- 10 hours a day, 5 days a week
- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week
