The Jun group is exploring the environmental impacts of human activities through improved understanding of the fate and transport of contaminants and nanoparticles. In particular, we aim to improve our understanding of the climate change impacts on water supply. We also are studying biogeological cycling in complex environmental systems from nanoscale to macroscale, with a view to conserving and restoring sound water environments.
In addition, our group is performing a comprehensive analysis of the potential risks associated with CO2 sequestration strategies to mitigate climate change and developing new treatment techniques and new catalysts for purifying drinking water and remediating contaminated water and soil.
What's new
To Solve Grand Challenges in Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, We Need to Help Our Students Learn about...(click the text for more detailed information)
- NEW! A call for papers for a special focus issue on Carbon Sequestration in Environmental Science & Technology has been announced. Prof. Jun will serve as the Guest Editor. Click here for more detailed information
January 25, 2012: The Jun Group Meeting resumes (4:30-6:00 PM, Every Thursday), Brauer Hall 3015.
Please see our group meeting schedule
For new students, if you are interested in learning about our group research, please feel free to sit in our group meeting after you email to Prof. Jun.
January 3-11, 2012: Presenting our research in Asia: Professor Jun presented our research group's findings at Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Korea University in Korea and Peking University in China. During the trips, she also visited Tsinghua University in China for collaborations.
December 21, 2011: Congratulations to Dabin! Dabin (high school student researcher) received admissions from Caltech and MIT for her undergraduate program.
December 2, 2011: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as“Supercritical CO2–Brine Induced Dissolution, Swelling, and Secondary Mineral Formation on Phlogopite Surfaces at 75–95oC and 75 atm” has been accepted to Energy & Environmental Science.
November 2-5, 2011: We conducted sychrotron-based x-ray scattering experiments (SAXS/WAXS/GISAXS) at the Argonne National Laboratory (Sector 12ID-B), IL.
October 22, 2011: Welcome to Environmental NanoChemistry Lab! Jessica, Yandi, Chelsea, Yi, Yunke, and Prof. Jun offered a learning lab as a part of “Moving and Shaking: An Introduction to Engineering” for students in grades 6-8.
One more, Dabin (high school student researcher) presented her summer research at 2011 undergraduate research symposium. Dabin was the representative student from STARS program. Chelsea is her mentor. Good job, Dabin and Chelsea!
October 7-8, 2011: Prof. Jun was invited to participate the NSF sponsored SEES (Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability) Workshop on Natural and Engineered Carbon Sequestration, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
October 3-4, 2011: Prof. Jun and Yandi attended the Center for Nanoscale Control of Geologic CO2 (NCGC-EFRC) 3rd All-Hands Meeting at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
September 12, 2011: Prof. Jun is chosed to be the first Faculty Fellows of the Institute for School Partnership, Washington University. The interdisciplinary institute connects the broad resources of Washington University with K-12 schools in strategic partnerships. The faculty fellows provide a cadre of experienced participants to serve as an informal advisory group for the consideration of established projects and new ideas, for integrating the many strands of the University and community, and for optimizing our K-12 efforts.
September 13, 2011: Congratulations! Daniel Garcia's research paper has been chosed to be one of three feature articles among more than 200 student papers in Undergraduate Research Digest.
September 12, 2011: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as "Effects of Organic Ligands on Supercritical CO2-Induced Phlogopite Dissolution and Secondary Mineral Formation," has been accepted to Chemical Geology. Link to the paper.
• Phlogopite dissolution is affected by organic ligands under GCS conditions.
• Organic ligands alter brine’s pH and form surface complexation with phlogopite.
• Supercritical CO2 extracted monocarboxylic acid from saline water.
September, 1, 2011: Congratulations to Prof. Jun! She received the NSF CAREER Award. More detailed information
"The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program is a Foundation-wide activity that offers the National Science Foundation's most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations. Such activities should build a firm foundation for a lifetime of leadership in integrating education and research." from www.nsf.gov
August 30-31, 2011: Prof. Jun organized a special symposium on "Multiscale Spatiotemporal Complexity in Geologic Carbon Sequestration: Linking Experimentation and Modeling" at the 242nd American Chemical Society (ACS) National Meeting, Denver, CO. During this conference, Yandi Hu reported her recent progress on CO2-brine-biotite interactions and Prof. Jun gave three talks in Fuel Chemistry (invited talk), Environmental Chemistry, and Geochemistry Divisions.
August 14-19, 2011: Prof. Jun gave the keynote talk in the special symposium on“MINERAL NUCLEATION: from the atomic to the planetary scale,” Goldschmidt 2011, Prague, Czech Republic. She also gave another talk on our resent research in a symposium on "Organic and inorganic fluid-fluid-rock interactions in CO2 storage systems."
August 8, 2011: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as "The Effects of Initial Acetate Concentration on CO2–Brine–Anorthite Interactions under Geologic CO2 Sequestration Conditions," has been accepted to Energy & Environmental Science. Link to the paper.
Acetate decreases the cumulative aqueous metal concentrations upon CO2 injection by inhibiting anorthite dissolution and facilitating secondary mineral precipitation.
July 11, 2011: Prof. Jun served as a technical committee of the 2011 Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) Research and Education Conference (Tampa, FL) and presented our group CO2 work.
July 7, 2011: Congratulations to Yi! He passed his Ph.D. proposal defense. Officially, he is a Ph.D. candidate!
June15-20, June 22-27, and June 29-July 1, 2011: We will conduct sychrotron-based x-ray scattering experiments (SAXS/GISAXS/GIWAXS) at the Argonne National Laboratory, IL.
June 28-29, 2011: Prof. Jun was invited to attend the NSF-sponsored workshop on Nanomaterials and the Environment, Arlington, VA. Link to the workshop website.
June 2, 2011: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as "Biotite–Brine Interactions under Acidic Hydrothermal Conditions: Fibrous Illite, Goethite, and Kaolinite Formation and Biotite Surface Cracking," has been published to Environmental Science & Technology. Link to the paper
March 28, 2011: Prof. Jun organized a special symposium on "Environmental and Geochemical Aspect of Sustainable Waster Reuse" with Dr. Jeffrey Yang (U.S. EPA) at the 241th American Chemical Society Spring National Meeting in Anaheim, California. This symposium has been chosen as one of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) Picks. The video is produced by the American Chemical Society. During this symposium, Chelsea successfully presented her first oral presentation at ACS meeting! Congratulations, Chelsea!
C&EN Picks: Anaheim Edition (March 28th, 2011) from ACS Pressroom on Vimeo.
* In the April 25 issue of C&EN, our symposium was introduced. Please click the following link if you want to review the report. (pages 38-39).
February 26, 2011: Prof. Jun and Jessica gave hands-on demonstration for high school students and teachers to introduce environmental nanochemistry, environmental engineering, and talked about engineering career experience. This is as a part of the Women in Engineering Day event.
January 13, 2011: Congratulations! Our collaboration paper with researchers in biomedica engineering and the school of medicine has been published to Journal of the Royal Society Interface. This paper is entitled as “Nanogel Surface Coatings for Improved Single-Molecule Imaging Substrates” Link to the paper
December 28, 2010: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as “Effects of Salinity and the Extent of Water on Supercritical CO2-Induced Phlogopite Dissolution and Secondary Mineral Formation,” has been published to Environmental Science & Technology. Link to the paper.
Both salinity and the extent of water affect the interactions of CO2, saline water, and clay minerals, and potentially influence the fate and transport of CO2.
November 16, 2010: From textbook learning to real life. Sophomore undergraduate students had a tour to the Advanced Coal and Energy Research Facility as a part of ChE 351 course (Engineering Analaysis of Chemical Systems) and learned how to link what they learned in class to the real operation units.
October 21, 2010: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as “Viability and Metal Reduction of Shewanella Oneidensis MR-1 under CO2 stress: Implications for Ecological Effects of CO2 Leakage from Geologic CO2 Sequestration,” has been published to Environmental Science & Technology. Link to the paper.
CO2 leakage to shallow groundwater and soil/sediments from geologic CO2 sequestration sites influences the viability and metal reduction of Shewanella oneidensis MR-1.
September 15, 2010: Congratulations! Our paper entitled as "In Situ Observations of Nanoparticle Early Development Kinetics at Mineral-Water Interfaces" has been published to Environmental Science & Technology.
Using x-ray scattering, this study quantitatively and qualitatively monitors highly amorphous iron oxide nanoparticles’ formation and morphology evolution in real time. Link to the paper
June 4, 2010: Congratulations, Dr. Shao and Jessica! Our paper entitled as "Dissolution and Precipitation of Clay Minerals under Geologic CO2 Sequestration Conditions: CO2-Brine-Phlogopite Interactions" has been published in Environmental Science & Technology. Link to the paper
Announcement!
Environmental NanoChemistry Course (EECE 534) will be offered in every spring semester. Please click the below link to see more detailed information.
Our research group interests
Environmental Chemistry |
| Surface/Physical Chemistry |
| Environmental Engineering |
| Biogeochemistry |
| Nanotechnology |
Our research group (ENCL) information (PDF)
Chemical kinetics, thermodynamics, and mechanisms of environmental interfacial reactions.
Reactions at dynamic water-mineral interfaces: dissolution/precipitation, adsorption/desorption, passivation/activation, relaxation/reconstruction, and reduction/oxidation.
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A more comprehensive analysis of the risks associated with CO2 geologic sequestration strategies related to climate changes.
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Sustainable engineering solutions to alleviate the climate change impacts on water supply.
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Physico-chemical reaction mechanisms during aquifer storage, treatment, and recovery using water reuse to secure underground sources for drinking waters (USDWs).
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Scaling up from microscopic to macroscopic observations in aqueous systems.
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Development of new environmental catalysts for remediating contaminated water and soils.
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Heavy metal adsorption and incorporation to manganese (hydr)oxides.
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Structure, reactivity, and antimicrobial activity of iron and manganese oxide nanoparticles in aqueous systems.
Mechanisms of oxide film growth at nanoscale in aqueous systems.
Structure and reactivity of oxide thin films on mineral surfaces.
Effects of organic compounds and microbial biofilm on mineral dissolution/precipitation.
Biomineralization and bio-inspired chemistry.