Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

George C. Caldwell (1834-1907): American Agricultural Chemist, Pat Munday

Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Articles

George Caldwell served as president of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in 1892. Prior to this time, the ACS had been a rather parochial New York City based organization. In 1890, the constituency of the ACS expressed its desire to become a truly national body. Toward this end, it forged closer ties with the Chemical Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and merged with the Chemical Section in 1891. As Caldwell had been active with the AAAS group for several years previous to this merger, his election to the presidency of the ACS can be …

Organic Waste Compounds In Butte Area Surface Waters, Deliliah Friedlander

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

As human dependence on pharmaceuticals and household products containing a broad variety of organic compounds increases, so does the discharge of residual components of these compounds into surface and groundwaters. Organic wastewater chemicals (OWCs) result when human or animal discharge appears in the environment through a variety of waste disposal mechanisms. Historically environmental standards for organic wastewater chemicals have not been a concern when compared to biological hazards, metal contamination, acid/base hazards and radioactive hazards. At present, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does not have standards for organic wastewater chemicals for surface waters; it is imperative that research be …

Chemical Speciation In Silver Bow And Blacktail Creeks: Implications For Bioavailability And Restoration, Johnathan Feldman

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Silver Bow and Blacktail Creeks, contaminated with toxic elements from mining, present a need for remediation and restoration. Trace elements are present in elevated concentrations, particularly copper. Determining element speciation will allow informed consideration of effective restoration strategies, by providing a foundation for assessing bioavailability and toxicity. The three goals are: determine how speciation varies between seasons and sites in four impacted sites from the greater Butte Area One, an impacted downstream site known as Santa, and a control site on Upper Blacktail Creek known as Blacktail; how these variations influence bioavailability and toxicity; and what causes these variations. Total …

Growth, Lipid Production And Biodiesel Potential Of Chromulina Freiburgensis Dofl., An Acidophilic Chrysophyte Isolated From Berkeley Pit Lake, June E. Mohler Mitman

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Microalgae remain a promising, but underdeveloped source of lipids for sustainable biodiesel. Some of the obstacles to cost-effective commercial-scale production have been culture contamination and expensive harvest methods. A chrysophyte isolated from Berkeley Pit Lake and identified as Chromulina freiburgensis, was found to grow rapidly in a pH 2.5 liquid medium and to amass numerous intracellular lipid bodies. This research addresses the scarcity of published knowledge on the topic of chrysophyte species as potential lipid sources for biodiesel. It investigates how growth phase, culture conditions, and harvest timing influence the quantity and composition of lipids produced by this alga. …

Technical Feasibility Of Selectively Separating Rare Earth Elements By Vapor Phase Extraction And Condensation, Katie Lyons

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Experiments were performed to evaluate the technical feasibility of selectively separating selected rare earth halides (bromides and chlorides) using a volatilization and condensation technique. Initially, optimum chloridizing and bromidizing roast parameters were secured in studies performed on reagent grade rare earth oxide samples and subsequently confirmed in tests performed on mineral ore and concentrate samples. The volatilization and condensation experiments were performed by placing the subject rare earth halide samples in an argon-purged multiple-zone tube furnace wherein the temperature profile was controlled to establish separate vaporization and condensation regions. Following each experiment, condensate and solid residue samples were analyzed to …

Suspension Electrospinning Carbon Nanotube Doped Poly (Vinyl Alcohol) Nanowires, Ryan Hensleigh

Honors Theses

The synthesis, characterization and application of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have received substantial attention in recent years, particularly in the field of polymer nanomaterial composites (PNCs). CNTs possess impressive thermal, electrical and mechanical properties, and PNCs incorporating them have shown multitude increases in these same properties with relatively low percolation thresholds [1]. Electrospinning is an effective and tunable materials synthesis platform for the manufacture of micro and nanofibers that has shown particular promise in the fields of carbon nanotube PNC processing due to the favorable isotropic alignment CNTs undergo due to the electrospinning process [2]. CNT alignment has been shown to …

Organic Wastewater Chemicals In Silver Bow Creek - Butte To Warm Springs Ponds, Heidi Reid, Katie Hailer, Ph.D., Steve Parker, Ph.D.

2013 Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study is to detail and analyze the distribution, concentration, and loads of 5 organic compounds along Silver Bow Creek in Butte, Montana from the Municipal Wastewater treatment plant to the Warm Springs Ponds. The chemicals analyzed include Carbamazepine (pharmaceutical), Miconazole (fungicide) and three antibiotics – Sulfamethoxazole, Thiabendazole, and Ciprofloxacin.

This project begins a 2 year study to analyze 6 additional compounds (11 compounds total), to develop an effective method to detail and analyze OWCs using Mass Spectrometer/Liquid chromatography system, and to aid in assessment of aquatic health and ongoing restoration work. The EPA method 1694 was …

Colloidal Nano-Apatite Particles With Active Luminescent And Magentic Properties For Biotechnology Applications, Rajendra Kasinath, Kumar Ganesan

Environmental Engineering

Colloidal Nano-apatite Particles with Active Luminescent and Magentic Properties for Biotechnology Applications. The synthesis of functional nano-materials is a burgeoning field that has produced remarkable and consistent breakthroughs over the last two decades. Individual particles have become smaller and shown potential for well defined functionality. However, there are still unresolved problems, a primary one being the loss of functionality and novelty due to uncontrolled aggregation driven by surface energy considerations. As such the first design criteria to harness the true potential of nanoparticles is to prevent unwanted agglomeration by: (1) improving, and, if possible, (2) controlling aggregation behavior. This requires …

Ion‐Pair Theory Of Concentrated Electrolytes. Iii. Variational Principle, Frank Stillinger, Ronald White

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

Two major contributions are devised for that theory of concentrated electrolytes which by convention regards the ions as completely paired into uncharged dipolar “molecules.” First, a more satisfactory expression is obtained for the wavelength‐dependent static dielectric “constant” ε(k). Second, a variational principle for Helmholtz free energy F is displayed whose minimization with respect to the ion‐pair size distribution p(1) serves to determine both F and p(1). In anticipation of future numerical applications, a binary collision approximation is specified for the short‐range interaction aspect of the functional F[p(1)].

Ion‐Pair Theory Of Concentrated Electrolytes. Iv. Ion Atmosphere Charge Distribution, Frank Stillinger, Ronald White

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

Arguments are presented indicating that the large‐size limiting behavior of the ion‐pair size distribution is qualitatively the same both with, and without, Coulomb interactions between ions. This in turn implies that the static dielectric response function ε0 / ε(k) derived in the preceding paper is nonanalytic at k = 0. The specific singular behavior of this response requires a branch cut along the imaginary k axis. It furthermore induces an r−8 tail in the ion atmosphere charge distribution at finite electrolyte concentration.

Perturbation Theory Of The Hooke's Law Model For The Two‐Electron Atom, Ronald White, W. Byers Brown

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

The Hooke model for the two‐electron atom replaces the electron–nuclear interaction by a harmonic oscillator potential, but retains the Coulomb repulsion of the electrons. The first‐order perturbation equation for the electron repulsion is solved analytically, and the exact first‐, second‐, and third‐order perturbation energies are obtained. A similar Z^-1 perturbation treatment is carried out for the Hartree–Fock equation and other variational approximations. The Z^-1 of the correlation energy is compared with that for helium-like atoms and found to be similar.

Analytic Approach To Electron Correlation In Atoms, Ronald White, Frank Stillinger

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

A novel perturbative treatment of electron correlation in N‐electron atoms is devised. The unperturbed starting point is a central‐force “hydrogenic” problem in the full dN‐dimensional configuration space (d = dimensionality). The central potential in this solvable “hydrogenic” problem is obtained by averaging the actual electron–electron and electron–nucleus potentials over all dN − 1dN − 1 hyperspherical polar angles in the configuration space. The relevant projected Green's functions are computed for the ground states of the model one‐dimensional two‐electron atom (with delta function interactions), as well as for the real three‐dimensional helium isoelectronic sequence. The corresponding first‐order wavefunctions exhibit weakly singular …

Perturbation‐Theoretic Approach To Potential‐Energy Curves Of Diatomic Molecules, Robert Parr, Ronald White

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

A perturbation theory is developed whereby the diatomic molecular potential energy W(R) as a function of the internuclear distance R is expressed, for R near R_e, as a power series in the parameter λ = 1 − (R_e/R), W(λ) = w₀ + ∑ (w_n − w_n-1)λ^n.

Truncations of this series have the form of finite power series in R⁻¹. The quantities w_n are obtained simply as perturbation energies for a purely kinetic‐energy perturbation at R_e, by setting up the problem in confocal elliptic coordinates, in …

Integral Series Solution Of The Schrödinger Equation For The Helium Atom, W. Byers Brown, Ronald White

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

No abstract provided.

Analytic Power-Series Solution Of The Schrödinger Equation For The Helium Atom, W. Byers Brown, Ronald White

Center for Advanced Mineral and Metallurgical Processing (CAMP)

No abstract provided.