Current Position

Henry J. Massman Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences
Concurrent Professor, Chemistry and Biochemistry
Director, Center for Sustainable Energy at Notre Dame (ND Energy)

Education

Ph.D., Geology, University of Manitoba
M.S., Geology, University of Western Ontario
B.S., Geology, University of New Brunswick

Research Interests

Prof. Burns' research focuses on several aspects of actinides, including their materials science, mineralogy, geochemistry, environmental transport, nanoscale control, and aspects of national security. The Burns group studies natural uranium and thorium minerals, and a broad range of materials that are synthesized, containing thorium, uranium, neptunium, or plutonium. The group uses many diffraction, scattering, and spectroscopic techniques to study actinides at various length scales.

Key Words

Renewable Energy, Nuclear Energy

Relevant Energy Publications

1. Xu, Mengyu, Peter Eckard, and Peter C. Burns. "Organic Functionalization of Uranyl Peroxide Clusters to Impact Solubility." Inorganic Chemistry 59, no. 14 (2020): 9881-9888.
2. Burns, Peter C. "Complex minerals preserve natural geochemically important nanoscale metal oxide clusters." Acta Crystallographica Section B: Structural Science, Crystal Engineering and Materials 76, no. 4 (2020).
3. Traustason, H., S. M. Aksenov, and P. C. Burns. "The lithium–water configuration encapsulated by uranyl peroxide cage cluster U 24." CrystEngComm 21, no. 3 (2019): 390-393.
4. Dal Bo, Fabrice, Sergey M. Aksenov, and Peter C. Burns. "A novel family of microporous uranyl germanates: Framework topology and complexity of the crystal structures." Journal of Solid State Chemistry 271 (2019): 126-134.
5. Smith, Philip A., and Peter C. Burns. "Ligand Mediated Morphology of the Two‐Dimensional Uranyl Aqua Sulfates [UO2 (X)(SO4)(H2O)][X= Cl–or (CH3) 3NCH2COO]." Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie 645, no. 5 (2019): 504-508.

Department Website
Group Website