CREATE Monthly PI Seminar Series (Apr 2016)

Event Date: 01 Apr 2016 03:00 AM - 01 Apr 2016 05:00 AM

Event Venue: CREATE Seminar Room, CREATE Tower (Level 2)

The speakers for the Monthly Seminar Series by CREATE PIs on 1 Apr 2016 are:

Prof Wu Kai (SPURc): Controlling Molecular Adsorption, Assembly and Reaction at Surfaces

After a brief introduction of the SPURc-CREATE programme on separation, storage and conversion of carbon dioxide, I’ll focus on how to precisely control the self-assemblies formed by adsorbed small molecules at surfaces which are primarily balanced by various weak interactions such as the intermolecular and molecule-substrate ones. Therefore, a slight change in the building block or an input of small external energy would drastically change the balancec and hence the assembling structures. Different strategies have been developed to control the assembling structures. Except for their fantastic and periodic patterns at surface, the surface molecular assemblies can be further employed to mediate surface reactions such as the reaction site, pathway and selectivity. Also the self-assembly approach can be utilized to tune the properties of individual molecules at surface.

and

Prof Martin Reinhard (E2S2): Natural Attenuation of Emerging Contaminants in an Urban Water Body

Urban surface waters often contain traces of emerging contaminants (ECs) that originate from wastewater discharge or leakage and surface runoff. ECs are structurally diverse chemicals some of which are of potential ecotoxicological and human health concern while others degrade the esthetic quality of the water. Most ECs are multifunctional with properties that range from hydrophilic to surface active and hydrophobic. ECs include pharmaceuticals, endocrine disrupting chemicals, personal care products, plasticizers, surfactants, etc.  Natural attenuation (NA) is defined as “the reduction of contaminant concentrations in the environment through natural biological, chemical reaction, and physical phenomena.”  NA entails removal processes that restore the quality of impacted ground and surface waters. A fundamental understanding of NA is essential for effectively managing the quality of urban surface waters. Our research aims to develop the basics for predicting NA as a function of structure and environmental conditions by conducting controlled laboratory and detailed field experiments. The resulting molecular scale models are then validated by comparison of laboratory predictions with field data and integrated in full scale trnsport models. This presentation focusses on the interaction of commonly found contaminants with sediments, examines relationships between structure and sorption, and explores how structure can affect removal in a water body.