Cook, Robert - Louisiana State University

个人简介

Bachelor's Degree(s): University of Concordia, 1992 PhD: University of Calgary, 1997 PostDoc: Nova Chemicals, 1998-2000; University of Calgary

研究领域

We take a holistic approach to the study of environmental chemistry, with a special focus on humic materials. Natural organic matter (NOM) is the largest pool of active carbon on our planet while humic materials constitute the largest fraction of NOM. Humic materials also form indispensable couplings between the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. They are major role players in the transport, deposition, speciation, and bioavailability of organic and inorganic compounds of both natural and xenobiotic origins. Hence, they play a major role in determining the health and fertility of an ecosystem. They have also been directly and indirectly linked to human health. Consequently, similar to how a fundamental understanding of proteins is essential in the understanding of the human body, a fundamental knowledge of humic materials is critical in the understanding of the ecosystem known as Earth. To this end our research focuses on studying interactions of inorganic (mainly metal ions) and organic compounds (mainly estrogen mimicking compounds, agricultural pharmaceuticals, agricultural chemicals, and other xenobiotic compounds of environmental concern) with humic materials, and how humic materials behave in the environment at a molecular level. Because, humic materials are complex heterogeneous polydisperse mixtures whose properties are echoed in their structural diversity, state of aggregation, conformation, and surface charge distribution, high resolution techniques are needed to study them in the detail we wish to. Also, unlike for biochemical compounds, isotopic labeling is not possible. Thus, a combination of techniques such as state of the art high resolution 1D and 2D solid and liquid state NMR, FT-ICR-MS, and fluorescence will be used. Some recent work by us to establish the feasibility of studying humic materials at a molecular level, akin to that of proteins, is presented in figures 1 and 2. Several research projects are being initiated in our group to address the issues discussed and are very briefly summarized below. Studying How Organic and Inorganic Compounds Interact with Humic Materials at a Molecular Level This project applies advanced analytical methods to study how organic and inorganic pollutants of environmental and toxicological concern interact with humic materials on a molecular level, similar to the study of drug interactions and delivery in biomedical research. By utilizing this approach we hope to obtain a better understanding of the transport and fate of toxic pollutants in the environment, with the long-term goal of being able to model the bioavailabilty of toxic compounds in the "real world". The analytical methods that will be used in this research will be state of the art single and multi-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectroscopy (FT-ICR-MS), light scattering, fluorescence and other appropriate cutting edge techniques as they emerge.

近期论文

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Thiam, S., Cook, R., Tracy, R.E., Treleaven, D., Robinson, J.W. and Warner, I.M.. Investigation of the chemical differences between native and bypass coronary artery plaques from the same heart using cross polarization magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance. Journal of Applied Spectroscopy, 2004, 71(1), 94-101 Cook, R.L., McIntyre, D., Langford, C.H. and Vogel, H.J.. Modern Liquid State NMR Techniques for the Characterization of Humic Material. ACS Division of Environmental Chemistry, 2002, 42(1), 1-3 E. Vaisman, R. Cook and C. Langford. Characterization of Composite Photocatalysts. J. Phys. Chem. B, 2000, 104, 8679-8684 R. Cook and C. Langford. A Biogeopolymeric View of Humic Substances with Application to Paramagnetic Metal Effects on 13C NMR, in Understanding Humic Substances. Advanced Methods, Properties and Applications, 1999, 31-48 R. Cook and C. Langford. Ramped Amplitude Cross Polarization Magic Angle Spinning NMR (Ramp-CP-MAS-NMR): A Technique for Quantitative Study of the Composition of Solid State Polymers. Polymer News, 1999, 24, 6-15