Filed under: Conferences, Group News | Tags: chitosan, earthy day, poster, research, sustainable development
Prof Art Ragauskas has been organizing an online poster celebration to celebrate Earth Day since 2010.
This year our group took part for the 1st time, as Khaled submitted a poster on his research surrounding the hydrolysis of chitosan. It is available here.
Thank you to Khaled for sharing his research with a wider audience and to all those involved in organizing this event.
Filed under: Group News, Science, Students | Tags: caprolactone, chemistry, DAAD RISE, kinetics, lithium complexes, MALDI-TOF, ROP
A second paper by group members has been accepted today for publication. This time in Dalton Transactions.
The paper is called: Ring-opening polymerization of ε-caprolactone by lithium piperazinyl-aminephenolate complexes: Synthesis, characterization and kinetic studies
Dalton Trans., DOI:10.1039/C2DT30276D
Nduka is a PhD candidate in our group and Christian was a visiting student from Germany who joined our group last summer on a DAAD RISE scholarship. They worked really hard to get all the kinetic data and the MALDI-TOF spectra presented in this paper. Thanks also to Louise for the two structures included.
Filed under: Group News, Science, Students | Tags: green chemistry, Publication, RSC Advances, students
Their manuscript has just been accepted for publication in RSC Advances. (This is a new interdisciplinary journal of the Royal Society of Chemistry)
RSC Adv., DOI:10.1039/C2RA20578E
Khaled is a PhD candidate in the MUN Green Chemistry & Catalysis Group. Marcus obtained his results during an NSERC USRA in the group during summer 2011 and Jen held a SWASP position in the group at the same time.
Filed under: Conferences, Group News, Students | Tags: AIDW2012, Atlantic Canada, Graduate Studies, Inorganic Chemistry, Poster Prize
HSAB Periodic Table of Cupcakes!
Justin Bélanger (M.Sc. candidate, Kozak group) received a prize for 2nd place in the graduate student poster competition at the recent Atlantic Inorganic Discussion Weekend (AIDW) held in Charlottetown, PEI. Well done Justin for representing the MUN Green Chem. & Catalysis Group!
Filed under: Conferences, Group News, Science | Tags: iron chemistry, kozak, science news, seminar
Leeds at Night (by Andrew Roberts, UK)
Chris Kozak visited the School of Chemistry at the University of Leeds last week. He gave a departmental seminar on iron catalyzed reactions being studied by his students at Memorial University. Iron is popular metal to use in metal-catalyzed reactions for organic synthesis because it is cheap and non-toxic.
Filed under: Group News, Group Photos, Science, St. John's, Students | Tags: carbon dioxide, chemistry, Green polymers, Memorial University, research, students
The St. John’s arts and entertainment magazine, “The Scope”, recently published an article in their on-line edition on some of the work occurring in the MUN Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group. Entitled “Great future in green plastics“, the article by Dave Jerome describes the research on degradable plastics that is being performed by Justin Belanger and other students in the group.
Filed under: Group News, Science, Students | Tags: chemistry, research, students
Good luck to Lisa, Marcus and Michelle with their presentations today!
Lisa N. Saunders (C. Kozak) “Synthesis and Reactivity of Amine-bis(phenolate) Complexes of Germanium and Tin”
Michelle E. Pratt (C. Kozak) “The Synthesis and Reactivity of Amine-bis(phenolate) Calcium and Magnesium Complexes”
Marcus W. Drover (F. Kerton) “From Bismuth(III) Boats to Lithium Ladders and Beyond: The Structural, Catalytic and Spectroscopic Features of Main-Group Clusters”
VT NMR of Li complex
Filed under: Group News, Science, Students | Tags: biorefinery, canada, chitosan, fishery, green chemistry, PhD student, renewable feedstock, waste
The first paper from Khaled’s PhD research has been accepted for publication by Green Chemistry.
It is called “Hydrolysis of Chitosan Into Levulinic Acid and 5-Hydroxymethylfurfural In Water Under Microwave Irradiation”
It describes our first efforts at converting biopolymers that can be obtained from fishery waste into potentially useful small molecules. This proof of concept will hopefully lead to these natural materials being used alongside agricultural and forestry wastes as the starting point for chemicals with a wide range of purposes including, fuels, agrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and plastics.
Some of the results were obtained in collaboration with Jessica Besaw (NSERC USRA 2010, Kerton group) who Khaled acted as mentor to. Congratulations Khaled and Jess!
Aminopolysaccharides (Chitin) are available in the shells of crustaceans (lobsters, crabs, shrimps). Khaled has shown that valuable 'Platform' chemicals can be made from them
Green Chem., DOI:10.1039/C2GC35048C
Chris and Fran were invited to participate in a departmental symposium and be the supporting act for Dr. Stephen Liddle (Nottingham University) who was giving his Royal Society of Chemistry Sir Edward Frankland Fellowship Award Lecture. Fran spoke about “Catalysis and Nanoparticle Formation Using Ionic Liquids” and Chris spoke about “Iron Complexes for C-C Cross-coupling Reactions”
They took the opportunity to do some sightseeing…..if you look carefully you might spot a photo of Fran giving her lecture!
Filed under: St. John's | Tags: chemistry, east coast trail, hiking, Memorial University, newfoundland, st. john's
Beautiful scenery on our doorstep – a recent story from the Telegram newspaper – World class adventure!
Hope all current and future researchers in our group are taking advantage of the East Coast Trail on our doorstep. Louise Dawe and other researchers in the department have been involved with the development, maintenance and general up keep of the trail – ask around the department and people will love to tell you about their favourite sections and their recommendations.
Green Chemistry @ MUN 