Deng, Youjun Associate Professor

The research focus of soil clay mineralogy group is to reveal molecular mechanisms of 1) reactions of soil/ clay minerals with natural and synthetic organic, inorganic, and biological compounds with environmental and industrial importance, e.g., mycotoxins, emerging organic contaminants, organoclays, modification of clay minerals; and 2) soil/clay mineral transformation under various natural and anthropogenic conditions, e.g., agriculture, forest, desert, wetland, polar region, and Mars soils, at nuclear waste storage sites and repositories, mine tailing and dump sites. We are also adapting and developing advanced spectroscopic and microscopic methods and molecular modeling for soil/clay mineralogy studies.