No description available.

No description available.

Pharmaceuticals and personal care products found in the environment pose a significant hazard to human and ecosystem health. While there has been significant work on the fate and remediation of pharmaceuticals and personal care products in wastewater treatment, relatively little work has explored the fate, transport and remediation of these compounds in non-point source input. This is concerning given the increasing use of pharmaceuticals in livestock production and wastewater treatment derived biosolids frequently applied to land. These experiments aimed to quantify the abiotic adsorption and biotic transformation and uptake potential of woodchips and biochar-amended woodchips as a potential sorbent strategy for diffuse acetaminophen (ACT) pollution. Batch reactions were created in triplicate, supplied with 5 mM ACT, and analyzed over an eight hr period using ultraviolet spectrophotometry (298 nm). Ultraviolet absorbance readings for each time step then were compared to standard curves and solution ACT concentration was determined. Decreases in ACT from initial concentrations were the result of either abiotic and/or biotic. Overall, the woodchips and biochar-amended woodchips showed similar removal efficiency (16-21% of initial concentration). Whole model ANOVA analysis showed biologic activity having no significant effect on ACT solution concentration. However, within group ANOVA comparison showed significant differences between abiotic and biotic WC and abiotic and biotic WC treatments (controlling for media). Thus, the media effect could have masked the effect of biology on ACT removal. Species capable of degrading ACT exist and further study into their ability to grow and survive on these sorbents requires further work. / Master of Science

Asymmetries in physisorbed systems give rise to interesting phases and phase transitions in two-dimensional (2D) monolayer and multilayer systems. The effects of asymmetric adsorbate and substrate interactions in monolayers of dipolar molecules on ionic substrates and N2 on graphite are studied. In the case of dipolar molecules on ionic substrates, 2D dielectric phase transitions using a modified Blume-Emery-Griffiths (BEG) model are determined theoretically. A dipole adsorbed vertically above a metal ion lattice site, and pointing up (down), is assigned a spin s=+1 (s=-1). An empty lattice site is assigned a spin S=0. Analytic solutions for both ferroelectrically and antiferroelectrically ordered systems are found. The model is applied to CO adsorbed on MgO and NaCl, and preliminary results for the phase diagram of CH3F on NaCl, are presented. Multilayer phase transitions for N2 on graphite are studied experimentally using synchrotron x-ray diffraction. The system is measured to undergo layering transitions, where the number of layers increases as the temperature of the system increases. A new multilayer phase diagram based on our results and the combined results published by other researchers is presented. The effects of capillary condensation on this multilayer system are quantified, and it is determined that its primary effect is to broaden the discrete layering transitions. The results for both studies are put into context with other adsorption systems with asymmetric interactions.

No description available.

Adsorption of monolayers and multilayers of metal-free and metal phthalocyanines molecules on metal surfaces has been investigated using complementary microscopic and synchrotron-based spectroscopic techniques. It was observed by STM measurements that at monolayer coverage the adsorption direction of the metal-free phthalocyanine molecules with respect to the gold surface vary as a function of temperature, i.e. at room temperature (RT) and low temperature (LT). It was explained by the difference in strength of intermolecular and adsorbate-substrate interactions at room and low temperatures. Nature of the interaction between adsorbed species and the surfaces as a function of coverage has been further characterized by XPS measurements. Binding energy shifts as a function of coverage have been attributed to initial- and final-state effects, the latter being due to different core-hole screening for the different molecular coverage. The alignment of molecular films at both monolayer and multilayer coverages, which has been determined by XAS measurements in several cases, is also dependent upon the relative strength of molecule-molecule versus molecule-substrate interaction. Parallel alignment of the molecular film with respect to the surface is the result of significant interaction between the adsorbate and the substrate, whilst standing geometry of the molecular film is due to more significant intermolecular interactions. DFT simulations have provided further information on the nature of the adsorbate-substrate interaction as well as contribution of different molecular orbitals in XPS and XAS spectra. Moreover, investigation of alkali interaction with the phthalocyanine films revealed a significant modification in their geometric and electronic structures due to charge transfer from the alkali metal to the molecular film. However, no sign of metallization of the molecules has been observed by spectroscopic and microscopic studies.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschreibt die experimentelle Untersuchung molekularer organischer Adsorbate mit Hilfe der Raster-Tunnel-Mikroskopie und -Spektroskopie im Ultrahochvakuum (UHV). Als Modellsubstanzen dienen Coronen, verschiedene Phthalo-cyanin-farbstoffe sowie je ein nematischer und ein discotischer Flüssigkristall. Mono- und Submonolagen dieser Substanzen werden hinsichtlich ihrer Adsorbatstruktur auf kristallographisch definierten Festkörper-oberflächen untersucht. Die dabei gewonnenen STM-Bilder zeigen die molekular und submolekular aufgelöste Struktur der Adsorbate. Die Untersuchung von Submonolagen zweier Metall-Phthalocyanine bei tiefen Temperaturen zeigt eine Bildung molekularer Ketten. Zur Ermittlung der elektronischen Eigenschaften der Moleküle werden molekulare Mono- und Submonolagen mit Hilfe der Raster-Tunnel-Spektroskopie (STS) bei Raumtemperatur und bei tiefen Temperaturen untersucht. Einige der Substanzen ermöglichen die Messung sehr stabiler lokaler Tunnelstromkennlinien. Die Ergebnisse der STS-Experimente an Coronen werden mit Resultaten von ab-initio-Rechnungen der Molekül-orbitalstruktur verglichen. / The work describes experimental investigations of molecular organic adsorbates in ultra high vacuum (UHV) by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS). Coronene, several phthalocyanine dyes, and both a nematic and a discotic liquid crystal are chosen as model substances. Mono- and submonolayers of these substances adsorbed onto crystallographically well-defined surfaces are observed by STM with regard to their adsorbate structure. The STM images reveal the molecular and intramolecular structure of the adsorbates. Submonolayers of two metal phthalocyanines, observed at low temperatures, reveal the formation of molecular chains. With special regard to the electronic properties, such ultra thin films are investigated by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS), both at room temperature and at helium-cooled low temperatures. Some of the substances allow the collection of very stable local STS curves. The STS data coincide very well with the results of ab-initio calculations of their molecular orbital structure.

The reduction of sulphur in transportation fuel has gained significant importance as the regulatory agencies worldwide react to air quality concerns and the impact of sulphur oxides on the environment. The overall objective of this research was to identify, develop and characterize, based on underlying scientific principles, sorbents that are effective in removal of refractory sulphur compounds from fuel through the process of selective adsorption. It was determined that impregnation of powdered activated carbon with a transition metal (TM) significantly boosted the adsorption performance of the activated carbon. It is hypothesized that the impregnation resulted in the formation of new adsorptive sites that strongly interacted with the lone pairs of electrons on sulphur and nitrogen while having minor impact on the existing oxygen functional groups on the surface of the activated carbon. The percent loading of the TM was determined through wet adsorption study. The best performing sorbent was shown to have maximum adsorption capacities of approximately 1.77 and 0.76 mmol-S/g-sorbent for DBT and 4,6 DMDBT, respectively, with approximately 100% regenerability through solvent wash and thermal treatment. On average, the PTM impregnation showed approximately 137% increase in adsorption capacity of the activated carbon. The sorbent also has good adsorption capacities for organo-nitrogen compounds (i.e., quinoline and carbazole) and a low selectivity towards aromatics, which is desired in adsorptive desulphurization. The surface morphology of the activated carbon, the oxygen functional groups on the surface of the activated carbon, as well as strong (chemisorption) interaction between the TM???s partly vacant and far reaching ???d??? orbital and lone pair electrons on sulphur and nitrogen are considered to be the main contributing factors to the observed enhancement. It was established in this study that the adsorption isotherms of the impregnated activated carbons best fit Sips isotherm equation, which is a combination of the Langmuir and Freundlich equations. This finding fits well with our initial hypothesis regarding the introduction of new adsorptive sites as a result of TM impregnation and that the sites did not fit well with Langmuir???s monolayer and uniform adsorption mechanism. A kinetic study of the sulphur adsorption using a flow reactor showed a good fit with pseudo second order kinetic model, indicative of an adsorption that is highly dependent on the concentration of available sites on the surface of the sorbent. On average, as expected, the TM impregnated ACC exhibited a higher initial rate of adsorption. The adsorption onto TM sites tends to be more exothermic than adsorption (mainly physisorption) on activated carbon. Therefore, more thermodynamically favoured chemisorption is expected to occur more rapidly than physisorption. It was determined that on average, the initial adsorption rate does not change significantly with temperature while the sulphur adsorption capacity decreases with increase in temperature. It is postulated that the increase in temperature increases surface diffusivity but impedes diffusion flux. The impediment of the diffusion flux will result in reduction in adsorbed quantity. It was also shown that the intra-particle diffusion exists in the adsorption of DBT on TM impregnated activated carbon, however, it is not likely that the overall adsorption is controlled or noticeable impacted by it. As the temperature of the reactor increases the Weber-Morris intra-particle diffusion plot moves away from the origin, and thus intra-particle diffusion becomes less of a controlling mechanism. This further confirms the fact that the boundary layer (i.e., surface diffusion) and potentially adsorptive interactions at the surface are the dominating mechanisms in the sulphur adsorption onto TM impregnated activated carbon. It was determined that the distribution of TM species on the surface of the activated carbon is relatively inhomogeneous, with some areas showing well dispersed TM species while other areas showing large clusters. Different impregnation method that can improve dispersion on the surface may significantly enhance adsorption performance of the sorbent. Furthermore, in this study impregnation of activated carbon using several other transition metals were examined. It was determined that other less expensive transition metals can also improve the adsorption performance of the activated carbon. Further study on less expensive options for impregnating the activated carbon may be beneficial.

Les carbones désordonnés nanoporeux sont des supports efficaces pour le piégeage de polluants y compris à l’état de traces dans les eaux usées. Le phénomène d’adsorption à l’origine de la rétention des molécules est cependant complexe car dépendant d’une multitude de facteurs : structure, morphologie et charge de la surface carbonée d’une part,taille/forme et polarité de la molécule d’autre part, l’ensemble étant dépendant du pH et de la concentration. Pourune meilleure compréhension du phénomène, il est important de pouvoir étudier séparément certains paramètres.Dans la perspective d’étudier le phénomène d’adsorption en milieu aqueux sur des carbones nanoporeux à structure et morphologie modèle, des structures lamellaires nanoporeuses de type carbone turbostratique ont été générées numériquement en langage C++ avec le calcul de la fonction de distribution radiale ou de paires. L’adsorption gazeuse d’une molécule non polaire ou polaire puis de deux molécules polaires (H2O/CO2) et (H2O/C6H6O)a été simulée par la méthode Grand Canonique Monte Carlo sur ce support modèle (Isotherme d’adsorption,chaleur d’adsorption, densité des molécules adsorbées) en fonction de la température. Les temps de calcul ont été drastiquement diminués en développant des codes parallèles optimisés sous MPI C++. L’influence de la forme etde la distribution en taille des pores a été mise en évidence en simulant l’adsorption sur la structure d’un carbone activé déjà obtenue par reconstruction 3D de type RMC. Enfin, d’un point de vue expérimental, l’intercalation d’ions tetraalkylammonium par voie électrochimique dans des carbones lamellaires (HOPG et graphite) a été explorée en vue d’obtenir des carbones lamellaires nanoporeux (≈1 nm). La structure a été caractérisée par diffraction des rayons X. / Disordered nanoporous carbons are the good materials for capturing pollutants, including traces in wastewater. The phenomenon of adsorption at the origin of the retention of molecules is complex. However, depending on a multitude of factors : structure, morphology and loading of the carbonaceous surface, on the one hand, size/shapeand polarity of the molecule, on the other hand, the whole being dependent on pH and concentration. For a better understanding of the phenomenon, it is important to be able to study some parameters separately. In order to study the phenomenon of adsorption in aqueous medium on nanoporous carbons with structure and model morphology, nanoporous slit structures of turbostratic carbon type were generated numerically in C ++ language with thecalculation of the radial distribution function or pairs. The gas adsorption of a nonpolar or polar molecule and then oftwo polar molecules (H2O/CO2) and (H2O/C6H6O) was simulated by Grand Canonical Monte Carlo method on this model support (adsorption isotherm, adsorption heat, density of adsorbed molecules) as a function of temperature.The runtime has been drastically reduced by developing parallel codes optimized under MPI C ++. The influence of the shape and the pore size distribution was demonstrated by simulating the adsorption on the structure of an activated carbon already obtained by 3D reconstruction of the RMC type. Finally, from an experimental point of view, the intercalation of tetraalkylammonium ions electrochemically in slit carbons (HOPG and graphite) was explored in order to obtain nanoporous lamellar carbons ( ≈1 nm). The structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction.

In dieser Dissertation wird die Struktur von ultradünnen Schichten auf atomar ebenen Festkörperoberflächen durch die streifende Streuung von Atomen und Molekülen untersucht. Dabei werden Atome mit kinetischen Energien im keV-Bereich unter flachem Einfallswinkel von etwa 1° an der Oberfläche gestreut und mit einem ortsauflösenden Detektor nachgewiesen. Bei hinreichend kleinen Projektilenergien werden Beugungserscheinungen beobachtet, die durch Interferenz von Materiewellen erklärt werden können. Die Auswertung der Intensität der Beugungsreflexe ermöglicht die Bestimmung von Atompositionen. Wird die Probe azimutal verdreht, ändern sich die seitliche Ablenkung der Projektile und die Zahl der während des Streuprozesses an der Oberfläche emittierten Elektronen. Dies wird zur Identifikation von Richtungen mit dichtgepackten Atomketten genutzt und der Vergleich mit Trajektoriensimulationen gestattet Rückschlüsse auf die Atompositionen der obersten Lage. Beim System einer Atomlage SiO2/Mo(112) kann durch mehrere Messmethoden eindeutig zwischen zwei konkurrierenden Strukturmodellen unterschieden und die Atompositionen eines Modells mit hoher Genauigkeit bestätigt werden. Die Adsorption von Sauerstoff auf einer Mo(112)-Oberfläche wird detailliert studiert und für mehrere Überstrukturphasen werden Modelle aufgestellt. Für V2O3/Au(111) kann durch Triangulationsmessungen eine geringfügige Modifikation eines existierenden Strukturmodells abgeleitet werden. Auf einer Cu(001)-Oberfläche werden dünne, kristalline FeO und Fe3O4-Schichten präpariert und untersucht. Die Inkommensurabilität der quadratischen Substrat- und der hexagonalen Adsorbateinheitszelle führt zu komplexen LEED-Mustern, die durch Mehrfachstreuung erklärt werden können. Dies ist auch der Schlüssel zur Erklärung der Beugungsbilder bei Adsorbatstrukturen der chiralen Aminosäure Alanin auf Cu(110) und damit die Grundlage für die Aufstellung eines Strukturmodells für dieses System. / In this thesis the structure of ultrathin films on atomically flat crystal surfaces is investigated by means of grazing scattering of atoms and molecules. Atoms with kinetic energies in the keV regime are scattered from the surface under small angles of incidence of approximately 1° and are detected by means of a position-sensitive detector. For sufficiently small projectile energies diffraction phenomena are observed which can be explained by interference of matter waves. The analysis of the intensities of diffraction spots makes it possible to determine atomic positions. When the sample is rotated azimuthally the deflection of projectiles and the number of emitted electrons during the scattering process at the surface varies. This is used to identify directions with close-packed strings of atoms and comparison with trajectory simulations gives information on atomic positions of the topmost layer. For the system of one atomic layer of SiO2/Mo(112) it can be unambiguously distinguished between two competing structural models. The positions of atoms of one model are confirmed with high accuracy by the use of several methods. The adsorption of oxygen on a Mo(112) surface is studied in detail and for several superstructure phases models are proposed. For the surface of a V2O3 layer on a Au(111) substrate a slight modification of an existing structural model is derived by means of triangulation measurements. On a Cu(001) surface thin crystalline FeO and Fe3O4 films are grown and studied. The incommensurability of the quadratic substrate with the hexagonal adsorbate surface unit cell gives rise to complex pattern for low energy electron diffraction, which can be explained by multiple scattering. This is also the key to the explanation of diffraction images for adsorbate structures of the chiral amino acid alanine on Cu(110) and the basis for developing a structural model for this system.