Dr. Juan Diego Rodriguez-Blanco

I am an Ussher Associate Professor in Nanomineralogy. I am an experimental mineralogist, highly experienced in crystallisation and environmental geochemistry. I have a strong successful track record in quantifying natural processes in the laboratory and applying these results to illuminating natural and societally relevant processes. Currently I am building a strong research group of experts in experimental nanomineralogy and also developing very strong national and international collaborations. My goals are to develop new methods for the removal of (in)organic waste products from drinking water, to and to design more energy efficient separation and recycling methods for strategic metals and to develop new carbon capture and storage techniques. The purpose of my research is to find out how to manage resources in a way that we can preserve the quality of life that we have now into the future generations. In particular, my research is focused on the understanding of mineral nucleation and growth from solution and mineral-water interaction processes. I am using a multidisciplinary approach to understand: a) Mineral formation and its role in geochemical cycles: I study the mechanisms of crystallisation of minerals at the nanoscale in order to understand the formation processes of carbonate minerals and their relevance for carbon capture and storage, biogeochemical element cycling and biomineralisation processes. b) The interaction of common seawater ions, pollutants and organics with mineral surfaces: I aim to shed light on mineral-water reactions that can be applied to remediate polluted waters and soils, to control the mobility and to find new sources of strategic metals. In particular, I focus my work on the evaluation of the capacity of carbonates, sulphates and phosphates to remove pollutants and rare-earths from natural waters with the purpose of designing more energy efficient separation and recycling methods for strategic metals.

  AMORPHOUS SOLIDS   aqueous geochemistry   Biomineralization   carbonates   CRYSTALLIZATION   Economic Geology   ELECTRON MICROSCOPY   FOURIER TRANSFORM INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY   FOURIER-TRANSFORM SPECTROSCOPY   GEOCHEMISTRY   GEOLOGY   Karstic Geomorphogy, Karst Hydrogeology,   LANTHANIDES   MATERIALS SCIENCE   MINERALOGY   Mineralogy and crystallography   mineral-water interaction   NANOCRYSTALS   NUCLEATION   Petrology, Minerology, Geochemistry   phosphates   rare-earths   RECRYSTALLIZATION   SCANNING ELECTRON MICROSCOPY   Small Angle X-ray Scattering   sulphates   SYNCHROTRON RADIATION   TRANSMISSION ELECTRON MICROSCOPY   Wide Angle X-ray Scattering   X-RAY DIFFRACTION

I am an experimental mineralogist, highly experienced in crystallisation and environmental geochemistry. My research focuses on mineral genesis and the interaction of aqueous species with mineral surfaces. I have a strong successful track record in the study the mechanisms of mineral nucleation and growth and the interaction of common seawater ions, pollutants and organics with mineral surfaces and their relevance to global-scale processes like biomineralisation, biogeochemical element cycling and the evolution of the global chemistry of the oceans. My main research objective is to transform the classical view of environmental mineralogy by developing novel applications in this field that will allow managing natural resources in a way that we can preserve the quality of life that we have now into the future generations. Since I started working at TCD I have been applying for funding to build a strong research group of highly-skilled experts in experimental mineralogy to fulfil this goal. All my funding applications have been successful, obtaining more than €900K as a PI in these programs: Frontiers for the Future (SFI), iCRAG PhD Recruitment Scheme (SFI), Provost PhD Awards (TCD), Intra-faculty TCD awards (TCD), Research Boost Programme (TCD). Besides, I have been principal supervisor in a EU-funded Marie Curie H2020 research training network (€530K), obtained funding to purchase equipment as a PI (Geological Survey Ireland Equipment Call 2021; €21K) and as a collaborator (SFI Research Infrastructure Programme 2021; €3.4M). This has allowed me to build a strong and motivated research group consisting (so far) of 7 PhD students (main supervisor of 5, co-supervisor of 2) and one postdoc. We work on topics like formation mechanisms of carbonate minerals for enhancing carbon capture and storage processes, design of mineral filters to decontaminate polluted waters, new green chemistry methods to separate strategic elements, and design of advanced microscopy techniques for mineral characterisation. My group also includes postgraduates from the MSc Environmental Sciences and MSc Energy sciences, as well as senior sophister students working on research projects about crystallisation, biomineral formation and carbon sequestration. Overall, my success in grant funding, research contributions, international collaborations, awards and invited talks at international conferences demonstrate my solid reputation in the fields of nanomineralogy and geochemistry.