Dr. Sarah Smith-Schmitz

My primary area of research is experimental analysis of REE coordination chemistry in supercritical aqueous fluids. My goal is to identify and characterize REE complexes in aqueous solution with a variety of ligands as functions of ionic strength and pH under supercritical conditions. The first branch of my research consists of hydrothermal diamond anvil cell experiments using in situ synchrotron based XAS to characterize ion solvation and coordination of aqueous complexes for REE in supercritical aqueous fluids. The data from this work, in conjunction with AIMD simulations, will establish the coordination chemistry of REE. The second branch of my research consists of supercritical aqueous solubility and speciation experiments using high temperature- pressure flow-through UV-Vis and capillary Raman spectroscopy techniques. These experiments will generate fundamental thermodynamic data that will be incorporated into the MINES database and can be used to develop more accurate predictive models for the behavior of REE in the natural world e.g., magmatic-hydrothermal systems.