The most successful and cost-effective approach for groundwater remediation depends on understanding the physical and chemical processes that control the fate and transport of organic pollutants. The desorption of organics from soil aggregates limits the overall rate of remediation. Organics may adsorb in two microporous regions of soil aggregates, hydrophobic mineral spaces and in highly cross-linked natural organic matter. Both regions are highly irregular and vary greatly between soils. By studying the sorption of organics to model materials, the basic physical principles controlling sorption to soils can be more fully understood.
Zeolites are model microporous materials that approximate the hydrophobic mineral spaces in soils.
If you are interested, you can look at Scott's curriculum vitae . Scott A. McMillan is a graduate student in Linda Broadbelt's and Randy Snurr's research groups in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Northwestern University . He received his B.S. in Civil Engineering in May 1996 and M.S. in Environmental Engineering in May 1998 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign , and is a former member of Charlie Werth's research group.