This award supports a three year collaborative research project between Professor Ronald Levy of Rutgers University in New Brunswick and Professor Masaru Nakahara of Kyoto University in Japan. The researchers will undertake theoretical and experimental studies of aqueous solutions under extreme conditions. The study of water and aqueous solutions under conditions that are far from standard pressure and temperature is receiving increasing attention. The potential industrial importance of supercritical water, as a good solvent for separations and reactions provides one motivation for this effort. The recent development of new experimental and theoretical high-pressure techniques to study problems in biophysical chemistry is another. The three goals of the project are: 1) a study of the role of polarizability in the physical chemistry of aqueous solutions under extreme conditions; 2) further development of hydration shell models based on statistical mechanics to describe the thermodynamics and dynamics of aqueous solutions as a function of temperature and pressure; and 3) computer simulations of biomolecular hydration at high pressure and temperature.
This project brings together the efforts of two laboratories that have complementary expertise and research capabilities. The U.S. researchers have expertise in the study of solvent effects in physical and biophysical chemistry and the Japanese researchers are experts in the use of high resolution NMR to study the structure of supercritical water. Results of the research will have practical engineering applications in the field of chemical waste management where supercritical water is being used as a solvent for separations and reactions involving toxic wastes. Through the exchange of ideas and technology, this project will broaden our base of basic knowledge and promote international understanding and cooperation. ***
