Environmental Chemistry of Aluminum

The Environmental Chemistry of Aluminum provides a comprehensive, fundamental account of the aqueous chemistry of aluminum within an environmental context. An excellent reference for environmental chemists & scientific administrators of environmental programs, this book contains material reflecting the many recent changes in this rapidly developing discipline. The first three chapters discuss the most fundamental aspects of aluminum chemistry: its quantitation in soils & natural waters, including speciation measurements, & its stable chemical forms, both as a dissolved solute & in a solid phase. These chapters emphasize both critical assessments of & definitive recommendations for laboratory methodologies & measured thermodynamic properties relating to aluminum chemistry. The next four chapters in The Environmental Chemistry of Aluminum build on this foundation to provide details of the polymeric chemistry of aluminum: its polynuclear & colloidal hydrolytic species in aqueous solution, its complexes with natural organic ligands, including humic substances, & its role as an adsorptive & adsorbent in surface reactions. These chapters are grounded in experimental results rather than conceptual modeling. The final three chapters describe the chemistry of aluminum in soils, waters, & watersheds. These chapters illustrate the problems of spatial & temporal variability, metastability, & scale that continue to make aluminum geochemistry one of the great challenges in modern environmental science.