Advanced in situ Spectroscopic Techniques and their Applications in Environmental Biogeochemistry: Introduction to the Special Section

Abstract

Abbreviations: AAS, atomic absorption spectrometry; DNT, dinitrotoluene; EDX, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy; EXAFS, extended X-ray absorption fi ne structure; IR, infrared; NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; QEM-SEM, quantitative evaluation of mineralogy by scanning electron microscopy; SEM, scanning electron microscopy; SR, synchrotron radiation; XANES, X-ray absorption near edge structure; XAS, X-ray absorption spectroscopy.

Soil Chemical Insights Provided through Vibrational Spectroscopy

“…SR radiation is electromagnetic radiation emitted when electrons, moving at velocities close to the speed of light, are forced to move in a high energy electron storage ring and produce a light source that has an intrinsic brilliance 100-1000 times that of light source used in IRMS (Lombi et al, 2011;Martin and McKinney, 2001;Solomon et al, 2012). At present, there are more than 50 light source facilities worldwide dedicated to the production of this radiation for research purposes.…”

“…Several good reviews on the application of SR-FTIR with a focus on soils have been written (Holman, 2010;Holman and Martin, 2006;Lawrence and Hitchcock, 2011;Lombi et al, 2011;Raab and Vogel, 2004). In particular, the excellent review by Holman (2010) was a key resource in compiling this chapter.…”

“…In particular, the excellent review by Holman (2010) was a key resource in compiling this chapter. However, in a recent review comparing advanced in situ spectroscopic techniques and their applications in environmental biogeochemistry research, it is evident that there is opportunity for more studies in this field using this technique (Lombi et al, 2011). Numerous closely related applications of SR-FTIR can be found in literature: surface and environmental science (Hirschmugl, 2002;Sham and Rivers, 2002); biology and biomedicine (Dumas and Miller, 2003;Dumas et al, 2007); fossils (Foriel et al, 2004); fate and organic contaminants transport of pollutants in plants (Dokken et al, 2005a,b), and location and characterization of contaminants in sediments (Ghosh et al, 2000;Song et al, 2001).…”

Advances in coupling of kinetics and molecular scale tools to shed light on soil biogeochemical processes

“…The use of XAS to study light element chemistry of P and S reactivity with minerals, soils, and agricultural byproducts has been limited (Hesterberg et al 1999;Peak et al 2002;Khare et al 2005;Khare et al 2007;Negassa et al 2010;Lombi et al 2011;Solomon et al 2011;Blum et al 2013;Zhu et al 2014). This is due to several reasons: low binding energy of the 1 s orbital; sampling depth in adsorption samples is only a few microns, and transmission measurements are not possible; weak scattering ability; low fluorescence efficiency; data analyses is difficult especially because of multiple scattering; and there is a lack of good XAS fitting software.…”

Scaling up: fulfilling the promise of X-ray microprobe for biogeochemical research

“…As such, biogeochemists are also interested in identifying the biological and chemical processes underlying fluxes. Recent reviews by Lombi and Susini [1] and Lombi et al [2] highlight the profusion of biogeochemical studies over the last decade that make use of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) to describe chemical speciation of various analytes in environmental samples. The recent development of methods for measuring chemical speciation of elements in natural materials using micro-and nanoprobe synchrotron radiation instruments promises to extend researchers' ability to decipher the microscale processes underlying large-scale biogeochemical cycles.…”