CME IEET 21 Darnault

1. Fate and Transport of Fullerenes and Single-Wall Carbon Nanotubes (SWNT) in Unsaturated and Saturated Porous Media Itzel G Godinez, UIC, Department of Civil and Materials Engineering; Christophe Darnault, UIC, Department of Civil and Materials Engineering Primary Grant Support: National Science Foundation Bridge to the Doctorate Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Chicago • Generation of scientific data to explain the fate and transport of nanomaterials in subsurface environment • Development of non-intrusive, high-spatial and temporal techniques to describe transport and measure concentrations of fullerenes and SWNTs in porous media • Assessment of the extend in which fullerenes and SWNTs are transported in the vadose zone through preferential flow • Establishment of the impact of wetting and drying cycles on the transport of nanomaterials by characterizing the role of gas-liquid interface regions and reconstructing the soil column’s three-dimensional structure • Development of a pore-scale visualization method by adapting existing models and techniques to investigate the mechanisms controlling nanomaterials retention and immobilization in unsaturated porous media (e.g. air-water and air-water-soil interfaces) • Implementation of segmented soil columns to assess the transport of fullerenes and SWNTs in unsaturated conditions • Concentration of nanomaterials in column’s effluent will be analyzed by UV-vis spectrophotometer • Three-dimensional reconstruction of the columns will be accomplished through the Advanced Photon Source Hard-Ray Microbe from Argonne National Laboratory • Pore-scale visualization technique will consist of an infiltration chamber, mounting assembly, light source, electronic equipment (e.g. camera, lens and computer system), and imaging software • Development of techniques to visualize and describe the fate and transport of fullerenes and SWNTs in the vadose zone by preferential flow according to the following characteristics: • Non-intrusive, high-spatial and temporal methods • Use of preferential flow (e.g. fingering and gravitational flow) • Reconstruction of 3-D columns • Development of a real-time pore-scale visualization method • Acquiring data (e.g. nanomaterial concentration, soil moisture, velocity, distribution of nanoparticles, etc.) to explain the behavior of nanomaterials in porous media under different conditions