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Dr. Jim Rice, Professor and Department Head
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Phone: (605) 688-4252
Fax: (605) 688-6364
E mail Dr. Jim Rice
Education
• BA 1978, St. John’s University (MN)
• MS 1982, Colorado School of Mines
• Ph.D.1987, Colorado School of Mines
Postdoctoral Appointments
• University of Maryland at College Park, 1986-1988
Honors and Recognitions
• Associate Editor, Organic Geochemistry
•General Chairman for the 1996 Midwest Regional Meeting of American Chemical Society
• Recipient of an F. O. Butler Foundation award for outstanding accomplishments in Research, 1992
My research interests focus on the environment geochemistry of naturally-occurring colloidal particles in the waters, sediments and soils of the earth’s surface. Most natural colloidal systems are composites formed by the interaction of a heterogeneous mixture of organic molecules and inorganic substances such as amorphous aluminosilicates, clays and iron oxides. We are characterizing the surface chemistry and morphology of these materials, and are exploring how they interact with each other, and with environmental contaminants.
Our current and on-going projects include chemical characterizations of the organic components of the colloid, determination of the nature of the binding by cations of the organic and inorganic colloidal components, and studies of the impact of colloidal charge on aggregation behavior. We have found that a reaction-limited cluster model is appropriate for describing aggregation behavior. Once sorbed, we have found that a small, but environmentally important, fraction of the organic matter is entrapped inside surface pores. This entrapped organic matter has a tremendous affinity for hydrophobic organic components, an affinity much greater than that of the other organic components of the colloids. These materials are extremely important in the fate and transport of organic contaminants through natural sys tems. We are currently exploring the mechanisms by which PAHs and PCBs bind to these colloids, and the role that lipids play in the binding process. Using heaxfluorobenzene and 19 F solid state NMR, we have, for the first time clearly demonstrated spectroscopically that two distinct chemical environments exist into which these contaminants can be bound. This is an active area of research within the group and is currently funded by the Office of Naval Research.
We use a variety of analytical techniques in our investigations. These include the use of solution and solid-state NMR, pyrolysis mass spectrometry, electrospray ionization chromatography, small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), and laser light scattering. The SAXS experiments are being done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, while ESI FT ICE MS experiments are being done at the National Science Foun-dation’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University.
Because we are interested in chemistry and geochemistry, every project we undertake involves field work; we want to study chemistry that occurs in a natural system, not a in a laboratory beaker! We sam-ple natural systems to isolate the colloids they contain, and to monitor the fate and transport of contaminants. Because of this field-oriented approach, the research that we are performing provides society with the answers needed to make sound decisions about the environment we live in.
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