Principal Investigator Desiree Plata
Chemicals and materials released to the environment can be transformed via physical interactions and chemical reactions with matter (both living and non-living) and energy present in the natural world. These transformations will influence their transport in the environment and ultimate partitioning between the air, water, soils, sediments, and organisms. The sunlight is a powerful reactant in both atmospheric and aquatic systems, and we aim to determine (1) the rate of phototransformation of nanomaterials (NMs), (2) the mechanism of chemical modification, and (3) the impact of those transformations on NM lifetime in the environment.