Green Chemistry @ MUN

George Margoutidis (PhD candidate, Kerton group) is the lead author on a paper recently published by ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering: DOI: 10.1021/acssuschemeng.7b02870

In this work, chitin, a natural polymer from shrimp shells, can be broken down into smaller, water-soluble, biologically active molecules including sugars without heat or solvents using a technique called ‘mechanocatalysis’

Valerie Parsons (Former Kerton & Bottaro co-supervised MSc student) is a co-author on this paper due to her help in developing the separation-free ‘green’ analytical method used to characterize the molecules that George was able to make.

TOC ENTRY

Seasons Greetings: From our research group to yours, with representatives from across Canada (B.C. to NL) and the world (China, Greece, St. Lucia, Brazil and UK)

This week has been a busy one in the group. Erika Butler (Kozak group) gave an excellent departmental seminar, and Kori Andrea & Jennifer Murphy (Kerton group) organized and hosted a Trivia night at Bitters (the Graduate Pub at MUN). Well done everyone!

This semester we have Tyler Brown (Honours research with Kozak), Emily Robson (MUCEP 40 h with Kozak) and Ryan Warren (MUCEP 40 h with Kerton and Plommer) as part of our team. We hope you have a successful time in the lab and learn lots of new skills and science 🙂

We had a wonderful time last weekend at the Lighthouse picnics in Ferryland.

Here is a little video of our day 🙂

Dr.s Kerton and Kozak met with the Hon. Jim Carr (Minister of Natural Resources) with other scientists, engineers and graduate students on the St. John’s campus last week. They took part in an animated discussion on Canada’s energy future and in particular how the province is positioned in terms of clean energy projects. Dr. Kozak and our collaborator Dr. Hawboldt brought attention to our own research and the potential of bio-products and bio-fuels. Dr. Kerton highlighted the importance of energy conservation which could include lower energy chemical processes using catalysts, or new light-weight biomaterials and composites for use as insulation and in transit.

Two of our graduate students – Courtney and Juliana (Ju) – are taking part in the graduate student blog (an initiative of the School of Graduate Studies) here.

Please follow along and learn of the adventures that our students have as they complete their graduate degrees.

Here is a link: http://www.mun.ca/sgs/studentblog/welcomeback/

Three new graduate students joined the Green Chemistry and Catalysis group at MUN this September. Welcome to the team!

Courtney is co-supervised by Chris and Fran. She will be developing new methods for transforming waste produced in aquaculture/fish processing to produce value-added materials. She will also work closely with Kelly Hawboldt in Process Engineering at MUN.  Courtney recently completed her B.Sc.(Hons) degree here in Chemistry and Earth Sciences.

Keegan has joined Chris’ group from Lakehead University in Ontario. His honours research was on palladium catalyzed reactions for organic synthesis. His MSc research will focus on developing and understanding iron-catalyzed reactions.

Ju (Juliana) joins Fran’s group from Brazil. Her M.Sc. involved research focused on applications of biopolymers incl. cellulose for sequestration of metal ions. She will be working on a collaborative project co-supervised by Fran and Stephanie MacQuarrie (Cape Breton University and Adjunct Professor at MUN) on the application of biochars in catalysis.

Thank you Kate and Sarah for all your hard work this summer in the MUN Green Chemistry and Catalysis Group. We hope you drop by and visit when you attend MUN as undergraduates in September 2018!

We have several projects approved for next years Mitacs Globalink Research Internships. Please apply yourself if you meet the criteria or share this information with suitable students that are interested in spending time doing research in Canada. The application deadline is quite soon for positions next summer.

Their titles are:

1. Solvent Free Chemistry of Aminocarbohydrates
2. Waste Marine Biomass as a Source of Renewable Chemicals
3. Catalysis Research For The Development of New Chemical Processes Using Carbon Dioxide

At the end of July 2017, students from Australia, Brazil, China, France, India, Germany, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Ukraine will be able to view all approved projects and apply to those that match their interests and skills. For more information, visit the Globalink Research Internships web page: https://www.mitacs.ca/en/programs/globalink/globalink-research-internship