Environmental Science: Nano Blog

Quin Miller is a Research Scientist (Chemist) at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland, WA, USA. After completing his Geology undergraduate studies at Whitman College in Walla Walla, WA, Quin worked at PNNL as a geochemistry post-bachelor’s research associate under the mentorship of Senior Research Scientist Todd Schaef. Quin then continued his studies for his Geology PhD at the University of Wyoming under the supervision of Prof. John Kaszuba, conducting dissertation research on the “Geochemistry of Multiphase CO₂-H₂O-Rock Interactions in Nanoconfined Environments.” During his PhD studies, he returned to PNNL on several occasions as a visiting researcher and also spent four months working with Dr. Gernot Rother at Oak Ridge National Lab via the Department of Energy Office of Science Graduate Research (SCGSR) Fellowship program. After completing his PhD in August 2017, Quin spent two years as a PNNL geochemistry postdoctoral research associate expanding his experimental, analytical, and professional skillsets under the guidance of Todd Schaef and Laboratory Fellow Dr. Kevin Rosso. In 2019, Quin was recognized with an Outstanding Postdoc Award for exceptional contributions to PNNL, with the nomination criteria including productivity, innovation, dedication, hard work, and strong sponsor impact/visibility. Quin was also elected to the Clay Minerals Society Council for the 2020-2022 term, and recently received a 2020 PNNL Outstanding Performance Award for laboratory safety.

Read Quin Miller’s Emerging Investigator Series article “Emerging investigator series: ion diffusivities in nanoconfined interfacial water films contribute to mineral carbonation thresholds” and read more about him in the interview below:

Your recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on Ion Diffusivities in Nanoconfined Interfacial Water Films Contribute to Mineral Carbonation Thresholds. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article?

I was fortunate to find a great mentor early in my research career, Todd Schaef, who emphasized the importance of continuing my education, setting measurable goals, assembling a strong research team, and producing focused, data-driven manuscripts. When I wrote my first research paper during my post-bachelor’s research position, my primary concerns were learning to complete an investigation, navigate the publishing process, and having a finished product to show to graduate programs. As my graduate studies progressed and I worked to pin down the scope of my dissertation, my advisor, Professor John Kaszuba, reminded me that many highly technical pursuits aren’t just missing the forest for the trees, but missing the forest for the leaves. I also credit John for giving me a lot of latitude to explore ideas and for greatly influencing my writing and thinking styles, including a willingness to get excited about both the big idea and the associated minutiae.

These days, I continue to work with collaborators to probe interfacial processes with PNNL’s world-unique high-pressure experimental suite, including in situ X-ray diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy. I am also fortunate to be working on a broader range of projects led by Laboratory Fellow Dr. Pete McGrail that include subsurface sensing technology R&D and planned field deployments. I am also able to work more closely with staff from PNNL’s Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL) user facility, including Dr. Mark Bowden. Importantly, as we demonstrate in our present Environmental Science: Nano article, molecular modelling insights from Dr. Sebastien Kerisit are providing vital molecular-scale insight into reaction mechanisms and processes observed via experiment. This type of experimental/theoretical crosscut is a signature strength of PNNL’s Basic Energy Science Geochemistry program that is led by Dr. Kevin Rosso.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

I am most excited about collaboration opportunities and working with investigators with a diversity of backgrounds, ideas, and research interests. It’s exciting to be at the early stages of a career, surrounded by a vibrant mix of established and early-career researchers. I also looks forward to staying diversified enough that I will someday be tackling problems with scientists that have yet to be born and AI collaborators that have not yet come online. In the short term, I will be co-mentoring two students this summer. I am also excited about the continuing development of our laboratory-based in situ X-ray diffraction capability that will enable us to probe an expanded pressure-temperature-composition space and work with a greater variety of samples. Research conducted with this capability will support several PNNL and DOE programs, including those concerned with nucleation and growth of applied functional materials like metal-organic frameworks and atomically-precise heterostructures. Todd Schaef and I are always interested in new collaborations to take advantage of our “24/7” beamtime with our current setup.

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

The most important questions concern how to successfully connect disparate spatial and temporal scales, as quantifying ephemeral atomic- to molecular-scale phenomena is vital to understanding coupled societal- and planetary-scale processes whose ebbs and flows will outlast us all. For example, how do we take molecular-scale insights about interfacial mineral carbonation and clay mineral swelling and use this information to not only predict but control the fate and transport of CO₂ in a geologic carbon or hydrocarbon reservoir? Successful bridging between of fundamental and applied science will by absolute necessity involve interdisciplinary collaboration. For instance, a research frontier I am excited to explore concerns coupled geochemical, geophysical, and geomechanical phenomena at the nanoscale, which have outsized yet poorly-understood influences on subsurface energy storage and extraction.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

My biggest challenge is finding time to explore all of the ideas that interest me and choose which ones to pursue in depth! Partly it’s a classic, age-old problem: it’s a lot easier to collect data than to process, interpret, and publish it.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

Given this worldwide health crisis, nothing is set in stone for my conference schedule. I hope everyone can be as healthy, safe, and united as possible during this difficult time. I was scheduled to present at the Spring American Chemical Society Meeting (Philadelphia, PA) on March 25^th, but it has been cancelled due to the global COVID-19 outbreak. I plan to present at the June 15-19 Clay Minerals Society meeting to be held at PNNL (Richland, WA), and the abstract deadline for that meeting is March 15^th. I am also co-chairing a session at the June 21-26 Goldschmidt 2020 geochemistry conference in Honolulu, HI and will also present at the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference (URTeC), which will be held in Austin, TX from July 20-22. In August I plan on presenting at the Department of Energy Carbon Storage project review meeting (Pittsburg, PA) and the Fall ACS meeting (San Francisco, CA), finally wrapping up the calendar year with the December 7-11 American Geophysical Union annual meeting in San Francisco, CA.  I may also be reached via quin<dot>miller<at>pnnl.gov and @quinmiller.

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy hiking, skiing, tennis, and reading.

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

If I weren’t working as a scientist, I would choose a field that promoted curiosity and inquiry about the natural world and our place in it. I would also enjoy working in an emerging markets startup and getting to interact with movers and shakers from around the globe and assist them in connecting ideas, institutions, and researchers.

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early career scientists?

Never underestimate the power of small habits.

Chamila Gunathilake is currently working as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemical and Process Engineering, at the University of Peradeniya. He received his bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka. He completed his Ph.D. in Nano Science and Engineering at KSU,  OH, USA. His current work focuses on the development of nanoporous and mesoporous carbon silica materials with organic pendant and bridging groups and incorporated metal (aluminum, zirconium, calcium, and magnesium) species for low, ambient, and high-temperature carbon dioxide (CO₂) sorption, phosphorous-hydroxy functionalized mesoporous silica materials for water treatment, and amidoxime-modified ordered mesoporous silica materials for uranium sorption under seawater conditions. He has so far received nine awards including three ACS awards: ACS-(Industrial & Chemical Engineering Graduate Student Symposium Award for the year 2015 (ACS 250) and 2016 (ACS 252) and ACS Environmental Chemistry Student Award for the year 2016 (ACS 251) and Presidential Award for Scientific Publication in 2019. His academic career has resulted in approximately 30 publications and 44 international conference papers holding an H factor of 20 and an I-10 index of 15. (ACS-American Chemical Society)

Read Chamila Gunathilake’s Emerging Investigator Series article “Emerging investigator series: Synthesis of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles Fabricated on Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite for CO2 Sequestration at Elevated Temperatures” and read more about him in the interview below:

Recent Emerging Investigator Series paper focuses on Synthesis of Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles Fabricated on Graphene Oxide Nanocomposite for CO₂ Sequestration at Elevated Temperatures. How has your research evolved from your first article to this most recent article? 

My first paper, Mesoporous organosilica–alumina composites and their thermal treatment in nitrogen for carbon dioxide sorption at elevated temperatures, was emerged from grad life. During my graduate research life, I have experienced with various metal-organic frameworks (MOF) synthesis, surface characterization, and assembly of nanoscale materials and methods to integrate nanomaterials with other materials via polymer assisted self-assembly process for environmental and catalytic applications, including high-temperature carbon dioxide (CO₂) sequestration from power plant, treatment of wastewater streams, uranium extraction from seawater. Grad life is the best moment in my life, and it paved the way to increase my boundaries of thought, where I felt my capacity to do something fascinating is still undiscovered inside. This is the first time I worked with graphene and graphene oxide that blended with magnesium to produce nanocomposites and applied to high-temperature CO₂ sorption. I obtained impressive results that are highly comparable to the materials I have studied in the past that led to thirtieth publications in 2020.

What aspect of your work are you most excited about at the moment?

At the moment, I am interested in designing novel sorbents for polluted water treatment and uranium extraction from seawater. As you know water is essential for life on earth, and consequently, it must be obtained in pure form. Water pollution problems are most serious in large cities in developing countries like my mother country, Sri Lanka. Currenntly, many people are suffering from kidney disease caused by heavy metals and I am trying to find an alternative solution to resolve this issue. Testing specific surface-functionalized mesoporous silica materials for uranium sorption under seawater conditions is another interesting project. Although the concentration of uranium in seawater is only about 3 ppb, a gigantic volume of all oceans (about 1.37 billion Km³) contains about 4.5 billion tons of uranium. I would say, if we can recover only 50 % of this resource, it would be enough to upkeep nuclear reactors worldwide for about 6,500 years. Among many actinide elements, uranium is the major and common fuel for nuclear reactors. Thus, there is a great interest in extracting uranium from seawater and use it as an alternative sustainable energy source. The final goal is to design composite materials with desired porosity, surface area, and functionality by selecting proper metal oxide precursors, organosilanes, and block copolymer templates and by adjusting synthesis conditions for the aforementioned applications

In your opinion, what are the most important questions to be asked/answered in this field of research?

Uranium extraction from seawater, I believe the most pressing question would be, how can we increase the adsorption capacity and rate of adsorption of uranium with the designed material. Typically to extract 1 Kg of yellow uranium cake, the average submerging time of the sample is six months. Moreover, it is necessary to know how to overcome issues such as handling nanomaterials in seawater and accessing a large amount of seawater for given materials. 

Regarding the application of CO₂ sorption, there has been an issue to apply those materials under practical operating conditions. Thus, I believe the requirement of proper engineering design and studying recycle stability and reusability studies is mandatory.

What do you find most challenging about your research?

Any person would love to feel the pristine nature of the environment than a grimy one. We as chemical engineers/ chemists are the major stakeholders responsible for making the planet earth free of venomous debris. So, I firmly believe that it is our responsibility to give back mother nature and its’ glory again. We will be able to rectify at least some percentage of mistakes committed by our own by doing so. I do feel emphasis shown towards the environment should be more and we should be at the forefront of educating the community. I feel that science & engineering helps me to better understand issues regarding carbon dioxide capture, wastewater treatment, uranium extraction, and gives me a chance to make the earth a better place to live. However, getting at the heart of any research question in the Environmental field requires extensive knowledge in other fields. Sometimes, I wish I could have another graduate degree in Environmental, Polymer and Chemical engineering all at once to understand just one piece of the puzzle. Extending into literature outside my comfort zone is always challenging.

In which upcoming conferences or events may our readers meet you?

I will be in Nano 9, a conference in Poland in September where my graduate advisor holds a co-chair position in Nano 9. 

How do you spend your spare time?

I enjoy spending time with my staff members, friends, and family members. I most of the time willing to help people who essentially need our hand to live. Outside the academic work, I mostly preferred for traveling through nature made aesthetic places. Most of the spare time, I listen to music and play sports. 

Which profession would you choose if you were not a scientist?

If I were not in academics, I always thought that I’d like to be a travelling guide who helped tourists to travel throughout my small country. 

Can you share one piece of career-related advice or wisdom with other early-career scientists?

At different stages of life, we are working on different efficiencies. In case one stage fails, you can turn your life into a better place in the next stage. So, for early-career scientists, I would recommend collaborating strategically with people from different fields and developing your unique research brand. While working with them, learn a lot about teamwork, learn how to interact with different people and share your skills with them. Participate in national and international oral and poster presentations, present your research, encounter cutting-edge science of different fields, hear the latest information in your areas of professional interest, and network with colleagues.