Over the last 30 or so years we have used new spectroscopic and scattering methods combined with creatively applied classical geochemical methods to greatly extend our knowledge of the mineral-water interface on the molecular level. In addition, molecular simulation approaches have been able to model the EDL region with general good agreement with experiment and basic EDL theory, while ab initio methods have provided new insights into stable local molecular arrangements.  We also have made important advances in organic-inorganic functional group interactions at interfaces, and begun to understand the nature of microbe interactions with mineral surfaces.  However our molecular probes have focused largely on average structure and hence do not test kinetic results from simulations. We have also not been able to clarify the nature of interfacial water structure, despite its critical importance in EDL formulations.  But perhaps more importantly, a true molecular version of the EDL remains to be developed.  Confounding the picture even further, the chemical and physical complexity of natural surfaces and grain boundaries challenges the applicability of what we have learned, and in particular, frustrates our attempts to predict natural geochemical phenomena with clarity.<br/><br/>In this talk the successes of past work are briefly reviewed, and many of the critical holes in our knowledge identified.  Possible approaches for connecting knowledge bases to fill in conceptual problems are suggested in areas most familiar to the author.<br/>

Mineral-water interface studies: Quo vadis?

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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