C4300 Environmental Chemistry I

Faculty of Science
Autumn 2010 - only for the accreditation
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 2 credit(s) (fasci plus compl plus > 4). Recommended Type of Completion: zk (examination). Other types of completion: k (colloquium).
Teacher(s)
prof. RNDr. Ivan Holoubek, CSc. (lecturer)
prof. RNDr. Jakub Hofman, Ph.D. (assistant)
Guaranteed by
prof. RNDr. Ivan Holoubek, CSc.
RECETOX – Faculty of Science
Prerequisites
Basic courses from chemnistry on the level of chemistry or biology study programmes
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
At the end of this course students will be able to understand the global environmental problems. They will understand the consequences among the chemical structure of chemical substances, their physical-chemical properties and their fate in the environment and the impact of environment properties on this fate. They will be able to interpret the environmental fate of chemical substances, their environmental transport, interphase transport, phase equilibria and environmental biotic and abiotic transformation.
Syllabus
  • Conception of environmental chemistry education.
  • Global environmental problems. State of the environment in CR.
  • Chemicals in the environment – definitions, basic approaches. Environmental harmful chemicals. Environmental fate of chemicals. Environmental compartments, basic characteristics. Ecosystems – definition, relationships.
  • Biogeochemical cycles – general aspects, BGCC of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, phosphor, metals.
  • Fate of chemicals in the environment – transport, transformation. Environmental interface and chemical equilibrium.
  • Parameters characterised properties of substances and environmental properties. Vapour pressure. Water solubility. Equilibrium organic phase-water. Distribution coefficient n-octanol-water. Organic acids and bases, constants of acidity. Diffusion. Environmental persistence. Chirality of chemicals. Occurrence of the chiral compounds in the environment and their fate. Relationships between chemical structure and reactivity.
  • Environmental transport of chemicals in air, water, soils and biota. Difusion. Ficks law. Dispersion, advection, deposition, volatilisation, sedimentation, phase partitioning, leaching, biointake, elimination.
  • Abiotic environmental equilibria. Air-water equilibrium, Henry law. Air-aerosol equilibrium. Air-soil equilibrium. Air-biota equilibrium. Dry and wet atmospheric deposition. Sorption. Water-solid phase equilibrium (sediments, suspended sediments, soils). Leaching of soils, runoff.
  • Biotic environmental equilibria. Bioaccumulation. Biomagnification, uptake from food, uptake from sediments, uptake from water, food and sediments. Accumulation in terrestrial plants, roots uptake, foliar uptake. Accumulation in terrestrial invertebrates.
  • Abiotic transformations of chemicals. Chemical transformations. Non-reductive chemical reactions including nucleophilic group. Redox reactions. Photochemical transformation processes.
  • Biotic transformations of chemicals. Biodegradation, types of biodegradation reactions. Aerobic biodegradation and metabolic mechanisms, anaerobic biodegradation, kinetics of biodegradation. Biotransformation, effects of biotransformation on xenobiotics. Phases of biotransformation processes.
  • Effects of chemical substances. Overview, mechanisms.
  • Models of environmental distribution of chemicals. Multimedia models.
  • Environmental databases and information systems. Integrated register of pollution.
  • International conventions and activities focused on environmental substances.
  • New approaches in chemistry, green chemistry, sustanaible chemistry.
  • Conceptual approaches in environmental analytical chemistry, environmental sampling, ultratrace analysis, environmental chemical monitoring.
Literature
  • The handbook of environmental chemistry. Edited by O. Hutzinger. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. info
  • BEARD, James M. Environmental chemistry in society. Boca Raton: Taylor & Francis, 2009, xvii, 345. ISBN 9781420080254. info
  • HITES, R. A. Elements of environmental chemistry. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Intersicence, 2007, xiii, 204. ISBN 9780471998150. info
  • IBÁÑEZ, Jorge Guillermo. Environmental chemistry : fundamentals. New York, NY: Springer, 2007, xviii, 334. ISBN 9780387260617. info
  • Risk assessment of chemicals : an introduction. Edited by C. J. van Leeuwen - T. G. Vermeire. 2nd ed. Dordrecht: Springer, 2007, xxxii, 686. ISBN 9789048175369. info
  • MANAHAN, Stanley E. Environmental chemistry. 8th ed. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 2005, 783 s. ISBN 1566706335. info
  • SCHWARZENBACH, René P., P. M. GSCHWEND and Dieter M. IMBODEN. Environmental organic chemistry. 2nd ed. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley-Interscience, 2003, xiii, 1313. ISBN 0471357502. info
  • VANLOON, Gary W. and Stephen J. DUFFY. Environmental chemistry : a global perspective. 1st publ. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, xi, 492. ISBN 0198564406. info
  • HOWARD, Alan G. Aquatic environmental chemistry. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998, vi, 90. ISBN 0198502834. info
Teaching methods
Lectures
Assessment methods
Written test and oral examination
Language of instruction
Czech
Follow-Up Courses
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
The course is taught annually.
The course is taught: every week.
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2008, Autumn 2009, Autumn 2010, Autumn 2011, Autumn 2011 - acreditation, Autumn 2012, Autumn 2013, Autumn 2014, Autumn 2015, Autumn 2016, autumn 2017, Autumn 2018.