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Environmental Chemistry Commons

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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Chemistry

Potentially Massive And Global Non-Pyrogenic Production Of Condensed "Black" Carbon Through Biomass Oxidation, Aleksandar I. Goranov, Hongmei Chen, Jianshu Duan, Satish C. B. Myneni, Patrick G. Hatcher Jan 2024

Potentially Massive And Global Non-Pyrogenic Production Of Condensed "Black" Carbon Through Biomass Oxidation, Aleksandar I. Goranov, Hongmei Chen, Jianshu Duan, Satish C. B. Myneni, Patrick G. Hatcher

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

With the increased occurrences of wildfires worldwide, there has been an increase in scientific interest surrounding the chemistry of fire-derived "black" carbon (BC). Traditionally, wildfire research has assumed that condensed aromatic carbon (ConAC) is exclusively produced via combustion, and thus, ConAC is equated to BC. However, the lack of correlations between ConAC in soils or rivers and wildfire history suggests that ConAC may be produced non-pyrogenically. Here, we show quantitative evidence that this occurs during the oxidation of biomass with environmentally ubiquitous hydroxyl radicals. Pine wood boards exposed to iron nails and natural weather conditions for 12 years yielded a …


Spectroscopic Study Of Uranium (Vi) Reduction By Plant Biomass, Margaret C. Murphy, John Bargar, Noémie Janot Aug 2013

Spectroscopic Study Of Uranium (Vi) Reduction By Plant Biomass, Margaret C. Murphy, John Bargar, Noémie Janot

STAR Program Research Presentations

Uranium is a common and problematic groundwater contaminant at Department of Energy legacy sites. At the former uranium ore processing plant at Rifle, Colorado, sediments rich in decayed plant biomass contain large concentrations of uranium that are slowly being released back to the aquifer. To simulate the reaction that occurs in organic rich sediments of the Rifle aquifer, biomass was incubated in U (VI) bearing groundwater. Carbon X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was then used to measure if uranium was bound to the biomass. When uranium binds to biomass the peaks in the C XAS spectra will change shape. Uranium L …