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.

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.

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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.