Biochar is produced from the pyrolysis of agricultural residues and other organic waste streams, and there is great interest in the beneficial impacts of biochar amendment to soils.  Our work on biochar is focused on the evaluation of methods to modify biochar surfaces to improve the effectiveness of biochar as an adsorbent for metal(loid)s including arsenic and cadmium.  We work with iron-impregnated biochar and biochar functionalized with thiol binding sites.  We evaluate biochar adsorbents in the context of water filtration and soil amendments, and use techniques including wet chemical analysis, SEM-EDS, XRD, and geochemical modeling.

People: Yi, Jessica