Current literature values of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) solubility in
water vary widely from 100 to 200
mg/L at room temperature. We investigated the effects of
temperature and pH on the solubility of both
reference TNT and field neat TNT obtained from the Alabama Army
Ammunition Plant (AAAP),
Childersburg, AL. The TNT solubility determined from this study
was significantly lower than that of
Taylor and Rinkenbach, which was cited by several reference chemical
handbooks and articles. However,
the values reported by the Merck Index and the
Lange's
Handbook of Chemistry compared well with
our
values. TNT solubility dropped rapidly as the pH increased.
Three unknown HPLC peaks were observed
at high pH, indicating a possibility of forming unknown transformation
products. Both reference and
field neat TNT solubility agreed well. A semiempirical solubility
correlation was developed to predict
the solubility of TNT at a temperature range from 6 °C to 42
°C.
Biodegradable natural surfactants obtained from plants
can be an attractive alternative to synthetic surfactants
in
the remediation of contaminated soils. In this
research,
a plant-based surfactant obtained from the fruit pericarp
of
Sapindus mukurossi, a tree generally grown in
tropical
regions of Asia, is tested. A simple and economical
method
for the preparation of the surfactant is developed.
An
empirical formula for the surfactant was determined to be
(C26H31O10)
n
.
The aqueous solubilities of hexachlorobenzene
(HCB) and naphthalene in the natural surfactant solutions
were found to vary linearly with the concentration of the
surfactant showing trends comparable to that of typical
com
mercial surfactants. Natural surfactant solutions were
also employed for flushing HCB from one-dimensional soil
columns. HCB recoveries after 12 pore volumes of
flushing
with 0.5 and 1% natural surfactant solutions were 20 and
100
times more than that recovered by water flooding.
These
promising results warrant further research to establish
the
usefulness of plant-based surfactants for soil washing
applications.
The mechanism of enteroviral inactivation by ozone was investigated with poliovirus 1 (Mahoney) as the model virus. Ozone was observed to alter two of the four polypeptide chains present in the viral protein coat of poliovirus 1. However, the alteration of the protein coat did not significantly impair virus adsorption or alter the integrity of the virus particle. Damage to the viral RNA after exposure to ozone was demonstrated by velocity sedimentation analysis. It was concluded that the damage to the viral nucleic acid is the major cause of poliovirus 1 inactivation by ozone.
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