Chemistry of natural processes and technologies for the environment

The chemistry of life.
The plant and its biochemical adaptation to the environment.
Primary metabolism. Secondary metabolism and functional compounds (isoprenoid, phenolics, alkaloids)
The co-evolutionary arms race: plant defense and animal response.
Plant toxins and their effects on animals. Insect feeding preferences.
Animal pheromones and defense substances.
Biochemical interactions between higher plants.
Higher plants-lower plant interactions: phytoalexins and phytotoxins.
Flavors and natural dyes. Conversion and transformations in the environment.
Green analytical chemistry with special emphasis on environmentally friendly sample preparation techniques; biotransformation.
Principles, instrumentations and analytical applications of techniques for environment monitoring. Spectroscopy: the electromagnetic spectrum, interaction between radiation and matter, chemical structure and absorption of radiation. Lambert-Beer's law. Spectroscopy methods: UV and IR, atomic absorption and ICP-MS. Basics of electrochemical and electroanalytical techniques. Chromatography (gas-solid, liquid-solid, liquid-liquid)
Basics of remediation technologies for cleaning up contaminated sites. Introductory aspects, amendments, and their chemistry. Soil injection techniques. Anaerobic oxidation, anaerobic bioreactors, biowalls, in-situ chemical reduction, permeable reactive barrier. Soil, water, groundwater, and aquifer types. Groundwater mobility, definition of hydrological parameter and drawdown methods for aquifer testing. Site contamination assessment, contamination types and sources, environmental sampling and investigation. Basics and general aspects of conceptual site modelling. Generalities of the main organic and inorganic contaminants of concern. VOCs and SVOCs, aromatics and chlorinated solvents, pesticides, PCBs, dioxins, PFOS, PFOA, fuels, main toxic heavy metals. Mass spectrometry tools for contaminants monitoring. Main ion source and detector types. Examples of contaminants mass spectra.