Argonne National Laboratory Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs Alumni

Jeffrey Catalano (Harold Urey Named Scholar)
Environmental Research and Chemistry Division
Appointment from 9/13/2004 to 7/27/07
Supervisor: Paul Fenter

ANL Research Highlights

While at Argonne I investigated the structure and reactivity of iron and aluminum oxide surfaces. These phases are important environmental and geological materials, and reaction on their surfaces influence the composition of natural waters, contaminant fate and transport, and biogeochemical element cycling. Key findings from my work include:

1. Compositionally distinct but structurally similar materials (Al 2 O 3 and Fe 2 O 3 ) induce similar ordering in interfacial water.

2. Contaminant species such as arsenic display previously-unrecognized complex adsorption behavior at mineral-water interfaces.

My work at Argonne resulted in the following publications:

Catalano J.G., Park C., Fenter P., Zhang Z. (2008) Simultaneous inner- and outer-sphere arsenate adsorption on corundum and hematite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72 , 1986-2004.

Catalano J.G., Fenter P., and Park C. (2007) Interfacial water structure on the (012) surface of hematite: Ordering and reactivity in comparison with corundum. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71 , 5313-5324.

Catalano J.G., Zhang Z., Park C., Fenter P., and Bedzyk M.J. (2007) Bridging arsenate surface complexes on the hematite (012) surface. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71 , 1883-1897.

Catalano J.G., Park C., Zhang Z., Fenter P. (2006) Termination and water adsorption at the a -Al 2 O 3 (012)-aqueous solution interface. Langmuir 22 , 4668-4673.

Catalano J.G., Zhang Z. Fenter P., and Bedzyk M.J. (2006) Inner-sphere surface complexation of Se(IV) on the hematite (100) surface. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 297 , 665-671.

New Endeavors

Assistant Professor
Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences

I am currently a professor at Washington University . My time as the Harold Urey Postdoctoral Fellow at Argonne allowed me the freedom to explore new projects and to establish a research program in the area of mineral surface geochemistry. My current work is really an extension of the exploratory studies I performed while at Argonne .