The oxidation of chlorinated hydrocarbons
Halocarbons are environmental hazards with serious human health consequences. In a recent publication in the journal Science (Sen Gupta, S., Stadler, M., Noser, C. A., Ghosh, A., Steinhoff, B., Lenoir, D., Horwitz, C. P., Schramm, K.-W. and Collins, T. J. “Rapid total destruction of chlorophenols by activated hydrogen peroxide,” Science 2002, 296, 326-328.) we described the mineralization of chlorinated phenols using the TAML activators and H2O2. We are expanding this chemistry with Professor Greg Lowry in the Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) Department at CMU to determine how broad a range of halocarbons can be oxidized using the TAML activators/H2O2 system and what is the chemistry involved in the oxidation process. Two undergraduate students in Prof. Lowry’s group, Dan Caballero and Mark Olah, have shown by doing headspace analysis that trichloroethylene (TCE) can be removed from water. The Institute now has a state of the art GC/MS system from Thermo Finnegan, Corp. that will allow us to do sophisticated analysis experiments to determine products, reaction rates, and other reaction parameters. We are aiming to develop a means for applying TAML activators for the remediation of halocarbons directly in soils and ground waters. This is a very challenging topic because of the complexities associated with in situ remediation.