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Mailing
Address: 4044 Derring Hall Blacksburg, Virginia 24061 USA Office: 5086 Derring Hall Office Phone: 540.231.4147 Fax: 540.231.3386 khaus@vt.edu |
Research
interests: |
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| Brief
Resesearch Description: It is extremely important in contaminated
river systems to know how trace metals are speciated and transported
downstream, especially if geochemical decisions regarding remediation
of the area may be necessary. I am focusing my research on the Clark
Fork River in western Montana, the largest Superfund Site in the United
States, in order to elucidate trace metal-nanoparticle associations.
Nanoparticles were chosen for study as they are ubiquitous in nature and they have been found associated with trace metals in this and other environments. Their size is small enough to keep them suspended in the water column, making them effective metal transporters on a daily basis. Many minerals also exhibit property changes as their size decreases into the nano-regime. Therefore, nanoparticles could be affecting both the transport and speciation of metals in the environment, making the understanding of these associations of paramount importance. I am currently working on implementing an effective filtration methodology to isolate the nanoparticulate fraction of the suspended particulate matter in river water samples using tangential flow ultrafiltration. This will give information on how much of the total metal load is being transported by nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy is also being utilized in order to obtain visual and chemical information on the specific mineral phases that are harboring trace metals.
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