Department Seminar Series - Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo, Ph.D
Location
Online
Department Seminar Series - Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo, Ph.D – Online Event
Date & Time
December 3, 2021, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Description
Alkali-activated Cementitious Materials for Waste Treatment
Monday Uchenna Okoronkwo, Ph.D
Abstract
Due to the high CO2 emissions associated with the production of conventional cements, research efforts have been directed towards developing alternative low-carbon cementitious materials. One widely researched alternative cementitious material, which has also found value in environmental remediation space, is alkali-activated cement or geopolymers. Although most of the work in our lab focuses on the chemistry of cementitious materials for construction applications, in this talk, I will mainly discuss our works related to the use of alkali-activated materials for aqueous heavy metal sorption, and solid waste immobilization. Specifically, I will show some of our experimental work on aqueous Pb and Zn removal using fly ash-based alkali-activated materials, and a thermodynamic-based simulation to assess alkali-activated material formulation for solidifying and stabilizing contaminants in solid wastes.
Biography
Dr. Monday U. Okoronkwo is an Assistant Professor in the chemical and biochemical engineering department at Missouri S&T. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Aberdeen, UK, in 2014. He completed his post-doctoral training at the University of California Los Angeles before joining S&T in 2018. He currently directs an interdisciplinary research group at S&T that engineers the chemistry of materials for sustainable infrastructure, energy, and environment. His research is well-supported by federal and state agencies, including the National Science Foundation. He has received several honors, including the College of Engineering and Computing Dean’s Research Scholar Award at Missouri S&T.
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