Themed collection Emerging Investigator Series

Reactive nitrogen species (RNS) pose a potential risk to drinking water quality because they react with organic compounds to form toxic byproducts.

Hundreds of review studies have been published focusing on microplastics (MPs) and their environmental impacts.

We review how chemical properties govern human exposure to environmental chemicals through different routes from different sources.

Photophysical models for dissolved organic matter optical properties and photochemistry are critically reviewed.

Use of reclaimed wastewater for agricultural irrigation is seen as an attractive option to meet agricultural water demands of a growing number of countries suffering from water scarcity.

Open dumping and burning of solid waste are widely practiced in underserved communities lacking access to solid waste management facilities. The generation of microplastics from these sites has been overlooked.

We quantified the lifetime of cashmeran, a musk compound, against 20 ppbv of O₃ to be 85 days. In the presence of O₂, cashmeran may influence the oxidative capacity indoors via production of secondary OH radicals (up to 5.1 × 10⁵ molec cm⁻³).

Chemical profiling of artificial turf crumb rubber reveals time-based trends in transformation products and transport pathways.

Changes in soil organic carbon, evapotranspiration, and S and Se atmospheric deposition are predicted to decrease S and Se concentrations in Europe soils.

Ferrihydrite, a poorly crystalline Fe(III)-oxyhydroxide, is abundant in soils and is often found associated with organic matter.

Higher AhR activity measured in endangered SLE belugas compared to Arctic belugas was attributed to their exposure to polar contaminants.

This study reports the decrease in iron-bound organic carbon quantity and change in its composition in thawing permafrost soils, with implications for the bioavailability of the dissolved organic carbon pool.

Organic aerosol formed from ocimene photooxidation has more oligomers compared to organic aerosol formed from other acyclic terpene precursors.

In aquatic systems, dissolved organic matter (DOM) has important ecological and biogeochemical functions, where the molecular composition of DOM has larger-scale implications for climate change and global carbon cycles.

The use of glycols is seen in various industries and occupations.

In this study, we investigate what happens when live bacteria are exposed to hydroxyl radicals under cloud-like conditions.

A robust and quantitative instrument that measures total gas-phase reactive nitrogen (tN_r) has been developed for indoor air quality surveys. It can focus on NO_x, HONO, and NH₃ levels indoors, from the complete tN_r budget, on timescales of 5–20 min.

Ash samples from Oregon and California wildfires were characterized and the effects on particle stability in water were related to combustion completeness and ash color to assess mobilization potential in aquatic systems.

In this study, we report the heterogeneous chemistry of ozone with urban road dust and anti-icer. We present a novel pathway for chlorine activation during ozone uptake by anti-icer and discuss its potential air quality impacts in cold-climate urban regions.

We used a modeling approach to explore how toxicokinetics and food-web trophodynamics affect MeHg bioaccumulation in the Beaufort Sea shelf.

Fog processing of atmospheric aerosol enhances the solubility and the dissolution kinetics of particle-bound metal ions.

Assessing the influence of cloud cover on solar irradiance and environmental photodegradation using machine learning models with cloudiness, time of day, and day of year as inputs.

The human polymorphic enzyme CYP2A6 is primarily responsible for catalyzing the oxidation and activation of one PFAS, the 6:2 fluorotelomer alcohol.

Strontium and caesium are fission products of concern at many nuclear legacy sites. In this study we used a novel approach to EXAFS spectra to determine the details of Cs and Sr surface complexation in clayey soils.

Municipal wastewater effluent is a significant year-round point source of neonicotinoids to a temperate-region wastewater effluent-dominated stream, leading to ecological exposure conditions of concern that persist downstream.

Organic films on indoor surfaces serve as a medium for reactions and for partitioning of semi-volatile organic compounds and thus play an important role in indoor chemistry.

Uranium uptake and accumulation in the roots of Tamarix plants, leading to extracellular U precipitation, and the intracellular entrapment of U–P nanocrystals.

SVOCs were measured in HVAC filters to compare seasonal differences, incoming vs. outgoing air, and semi-quantitatively determine indoor air concentrations.

Changes in the composition and absorptivity of primary brown carbon aerosol generated from smoldering pine were measured during exposure to hydroxyl radical in a photo-reaction chamber.

Composition of individual atmospheric particles reveals the influence of marine sources, terrestrial sources, and anthropogenic sources on atmospheric chemistry in the changing Alaskan Arctic.

Suggestion for how the use of behavioral endpoints can improve in environmental risk assessment of chemicals.

We investigated the release of mercury from soil to soil solution and the formation of methylmercury in polluted agricultural floodplain fields during a flooding incubation experiment.

Structural transformations of green rust and the partitioning of arsenic were tracked during aging for up to a year.

Emerging investigator series: Phthalate losses in floor dust are due to abiotic chemical degradation as well as microbial degradation of phthalates under elevated relative humidity conditions.

Insulation materials affect indoor air by (i) releasing primary volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from enclosure cavities to the interior space, (ii) mitigating exposure to outdoor pollutants through reactive deposition (of oxidants, e.g., ozone) or filtration in infiltration air, and (iii) generating secondary VOCs and gas-phase byproducts from chemical reactions.

Organic solutes in snow and ice can be distributed heterogeneously throughout the ice bulk and across the ice surface. This may affect air-surface interactions and heterogeneous reactions in snow-covered regions.

This study conducted mercury (Hg) isotopic analysis, which has been expected as a new indicator for understanding the behavior of atmospheric Hg.

Biodiesel and the use of an emissions control system significantly reduced the oxidative potential of diesel exhaust particles, which correlated with reduction in emissions of elemental carbon.

Atmospheric indium is dominated by human emissions, primarily from coal combustion and the smelting of lead, zinc, and other metal sulfides.

In the western U.S., produced water from oil and gas wells discharged to surface water augments downstream supplies used for irrigation and livestock watering.

Our study distinguishes the total vs. the bioavailable contamination of mixtures of environmental pollutants in sediments from contaminated sites in Europe and more remote locations in Australia and the Arctic.

Fatty acid monolayers form in a more well-ordered state upon mixing with cholesterol at the air–seawater surface.

Algorithm to fit whispering gallery modes retrieves biphasic properties.

Herbicides in the 2,4-D family were investigated for their direct photolysis under sunlight in organic solvents and on simulated leaf surfaces.

Experimental and computational evidence show that dimethylmercury is produced from decomposition of bis(methylmercury(II)) sulfide.

We report on the geochemical legacy of the liming of acidified lakes in Norway. We document the occurrence of Fe–Mn nodules and the diagenetic redistribution of trace-elements at the sediment–water interface of limed boreal lakes.

The amount of streamwater mercury associated with suspended solids was an order of magnitude greater following a low-intensity wildfire.

We fabricated a suite of polymeric electrospun nanofiber mats (ENMs) and investigated their performance as next-generation passive sampler media for environmental monitoring of organic compounds.

As coprecipitated with magnetite remained incorporated over time whereas sorbed As was redistributed and became increasingly incorporated into magnetite, both the absence and presence of aqueous Fe(II).

Organic matter affects the degradation of triclosan as both a sequester and an electron shuttle.

Detection of perfluoroalkyl substances from a remote ice cap indicate the importance of indirect and novel direct atmospheric sources.