Our planet has more organic carbon in its fragile soil layers than all the carbon on land and atmosphere combined. The Holmboe group is now hiring a PhD student (4 year minimum) and offering one postdoc fellowship (2 years) for two separate but similar projects focusing on the molecular interactions between natural organic molecules and mineral surfaces.

In order to focus on the molecular scale, the research will utilize various experimental methods and molecular dynamics simulations  (extracting for instance free energy profiles as shown below), and why not also virtual reality!

 

To apply for the PhD position, please visit this link.

To apply for the postdoc fellowship financed by the Kempe Foundations, please visit this link.

 

Our collaboration with Allan Bertram’s group at UBC continues with another paper on the ice nucleation capability of feldspar!

Yun J., Kumar A, Removski N., Shchukarev A., Link N., Boily J.-F., Bertram A.K. 2021. Effects of Inorganic Acids and Organic Solutes on the Ice Nucleating Ability and Surface Properties of Potassium-Rich Feldspar. ACS Earth Space Chem. (in press).

Using microelectrodes, we revealed a gateway for ion transport in bubbles pinned on hematite and on gold!

You can read our paper “A gateway for ion transport on gas bubbles pinned onto solids” here.
You can read the story behind the paper here.

Harizi V, Nha TPT, Berisha A, Boily JF. 2021. A gateway for ion transport on gas bubbles pinned onto solids. Commun. Chem. 4, 43.

This is the first paper from Merve Yesilbas‘ VR- and NASA-supported work with Janice Bishop at the SETI institute.

Bishop JL, Yeşilbaş M, Hinman NW, Burton ZMF, Englert PAJ,  Toner JD, McEwen AS, Gulick VC, Gibson EK, Koeberl C. 2021. Martian subsurface cryosalt expansion and collapse as trigger for landslides. Sci. Adv. 7, eabe4459.

You can find the paper here and press releases on CNN and SETI

Using soil analogues, the group showed how cryosalts can trigger landslides on Mars. This suggests the martian environment is still dynamic and active today, which is important for future human exploration on Mars. A portion of the experimental work was done in JF Boily’s laboratory.

A paper in collaboration with  Khalil Hanna (Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Rennes) and Eugene Ilton (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory)!

Cheng W, Lindholm J, Holmboe M., Luong NT, Shchukarev A, Ilton ES, Hanna K., Boily J.-F. ‡ 2021. Nanoscale hydration in layered manganese oxides. Langmuir. (in press) 

The Swedish Research Council funds  JF Boily with 3.9 Mkr for a new 4-year project on the geochemistry of rust in cold environments!

 

 

“Effects of organic matter–goethite interactions on reactive transport of nalidixic acid: Column study and modeling” by the research group of JF Boily and Khalil Hanna (Rennes Institute of Chemical Sciences) is now published in Environmental Research

Using an AFM tip sensitive to water, we tracked the spatial distributions of water films on minerals. We thank the Environmental Molecular Science Laboratory of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for access to its facilities through a User grant.

You can find our paper here:
Yalcin SE, Legg BA, Yeşilbaş M, Malvankar NS, Boily JF. 2020. Direct observation of anisotropic growth of water films on minerals driven by defects and surface tension. Sci. Adv. 6, eaaz9708

In the news: Smart Water Magazine, Phys.org, Yale U., UmU, News Beezer, aitnews, Today Headline, Forskning.se, My News Desk

Using vibrational spectroscopy and simulations we resolved the enigmatic surface chemistry of ferrihydrite. Three ways to learn more about our work:

1. The paper: Boily JF & Song X. 2020 Direct identification of reaction sites on ferrihydrite. Nat. Comm. Chem. DOI 10.1038/s42004-020-0325-y​.
2. Nature’s blog site, with the story behind this paper.
3. Goldschmidt conference: PDF of virtual presentation. Also a Q&A session on June 23rd.