Nanoparticle research and development have brought significant breakthroughs in many areas of basic and applied sciences. However, efficiently collecting nanoparticles in large quantities in pure and natural systems is a major challenge in nanoscience. This review article has focused on experimental investigation and implications of nanoparticles in soil, clay, geological and environmental scie...

Management of soils to reduce the amount of PM10 emitted during agricultural tillage operations is important for attainment of air quality standards in California's San Joaquin Valley (SJV). The purpose of this study was to improve and expand upon earlier work of predicting tillage-generated dust emissions based on soil properties. We focus on gravimetric soil water content (GWC) and soil textu...

Safe disposal of nuclear waste is an important environmental challenge. Several countries are investigating deep geological disposal as a long-term solution for their high-level waste. In Belgium, the Oligocene Boom Clay is the reference host formation for research purposes and for the safety and feasibility assessment of the deep disposal of high-level and/or long-lived radioactive waste. The ...

ÐSorption and transformation of 1-naphthol by a K-smectite (K-SWy-2) were studied using batch sorption isotherms, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The sorbents included three preparations of the reference smectite clay (SWy-2): (1) whole clay containing naturally occurring carbonate impurities, (2) SWy-2 with the removal of carbonate impurities, and (...

This paper presents 53 well-documented cases of the short-term set-up of open-ended steel pipe piles driven at two fields in the North Sea. Increases in soil resistance during driving (set-up) were observed when pile driving was re-started after delays typically ranging between 24 h and 100 h. The soil encountered at the sites consisted of overconsolidated sands and clays, where the clays varie...

Reactions of organic molecules on Montmorillonite clay mineral have been investigated from various aspects. These include catalytic reactions for organic synthesis, chemical evolution, the mechanism of humus-formation, and environmental problems. Catalysis by clay minerals has attracted much interest recently, and many reports including the catalysis by synthetic or modified clays have been pub...

Iron-bearing phyllosilicate minerals help establish the hydrogeological and geochemical conditions of redox transition zones because of their small size, limited hydraulic conductivity, and redox buffering capacity. The bioreduction of soluble U(VI) to sparingly soluble U(IV) can promote the reduction of clay-Fe(III) through valence cycling. The reductive precipitation of U(VI) to uraninite was...

Organically modified clay was used as reinforcement for HDPE using maleated polyethylene (PEMA) as a compatibilizer. The effect of compatibilizer concentration on the orientation of various structural features in the polymer-layered silicate nanocomposite (PLSN) system was studied using two-dimensional (2D) small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and 2D wide-angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). The dispe...

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN), Heterodera glycines Ichinohe, is a severe pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., in the United States. Nematode reproduction and the seed yield losses caused by this nematode are influenced by soil texture (3,5,6). Todd and Pearson (5) recovered higher numbers of SCN females and cysts from a sandy loam soil than from silty loams. Soybean yield also has been ne...

Particles with nanometer dimensions (nanoparticles) are all around us. The finest particles of sand are blown by the wind over thousands of kilometers. The finest particles of soils are either eroded by the wind in extremely dry conditions or by water under wet conditions and deposited hundreds of kilometers or more from the origin. The air contains nanoparticles of carbon, ice, and oxides and ...