Working group on Nanomineralogy

An exciting and rapidly evolving frontier in Mineralogy

Nano-mineralogy is a rapidly growing field of mineralogy that investigates minerals with at least one dimension of less than 100 nanometers. Mineral nanoparticles and nanominerals have been abundant since Earth’s origin and widely distributed across the Earth system. They often exhibit significantly different physical, chemical, and structural properties from their bulk counterparts. These unique properties can endow mineral nanoparticles and nanominerals with distinct reactivities and roles in biogeochemical processes, including nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration, and contaminant remediation. The burgeon of high-resolution techniques in the last decades has provided a great opportunity for the development of nano-mineralogy. Thus, studying the properties and reactivates of nanominerals and mineral nanoparticles can help us better understand their behaviour within the complex Earth systems and also inspire the development of new materials and technologies with various applications.

The Nano-Mineralogy working group was created to (1) promote collaboration and knowledge exchange among the international mineralogical community to advance research in this exciting field, promote advances in understanding the unique structures, properties, reactivities, and transformation of nanominerals; (2) provide a forum for scientists and researchers to collaborate on the study of nanominerals, sharing information and techniques that can advance our understanding of these important materials;(3) encourage interdisciplinary collaboration on implications and human health impacts of nanominerals.

Officers:

Chair: Juan LIU, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking Univ., Beijing, China.

Vice-Chairs: Keisuke FUKUSHI, Institute of Nature and Environmental Technology, Kanazawa University, Japan, and Michael SCHINDLER, Dept. Geological Sciences, Univ. Manitoba, Canada.

Secretary: Alejandro FERNANDEZ-MARTINEZ, ISTerre, Univ. Grenoble Alpes, France.

Members: Michael Hochella, Jr., Edward S. Grew, Jie Xu, F. Marc Michel, Enrico Mugnaioli, Bruno Lanson, Satoshi Utsunimiya, Hiroshi Sakuma, Kideok D. Kwon, Zimeng Wang, Runliang Zhu, Yi Yang, Xiandong Liu, David Singer, Yuefei Xi, Piotr Zarzycki, Quan Wan