The course deals with processes that control the composition of water in aquifers, soils, lakes, and in the ocean. The focus lies on using equilibrium approaches to describe and quantify these processes. The aquatic chemistry of inorganic compounds and the behavior of organic compounds in aquatic environments are both treated in the course.

 

The course is organized around three main themes:

 

1. Speciation of dissolved compounds in aqueous solution:

Acid-base reactions, complexation of metals, redox speciation, introduction into quantitative methods in aquatic chemistry including the tableau method and speciation models.

 

2. Partitioning of compounds between different phases

Thermodynamics of equilibrium partitioning, gas – water partitioning, solid-water partitioning, liquid – liquid partitioning

 

3. Adsorption at the solid-water interfaces

adsorption isotherms, surface reactivity of solids, surface complexation, ion exchange

 

The course includes project-based work. These projects are devoted to processes controlling the composition of waters in surface and subsurface environments or the phase distribution and transformation organic compounds in aquatic environments. Computer equilibrium models will be used to solve quantitative problems related to the different projects.