Filed under: Chemistry Professors, Group News, Science, Students | Tags: carbon dioxide, catalysis, Catalysis Science and Technology, Coordination Chemistry, Graduate Studies, green chemistry, Green polymers, Inorganic Chemistry, Publication, research, students
The RSC journal Catalysis Science and Technology has selected our paper on Cr-catalyzed CO2/epoxide copolymerization as a “Hot Article” for January. The paper describes work performed by Hua Chen during her M.Sc. studies with Dr. Kozak. Thank you Hua for your hard work on this paper and thanks to Louise Dawe, whose ninja-like crystallographic skills were vital to solving the structure of one of the catalysts discussed in the paper. Access to the article can be found here.
Dr.s Kozak and Kerton are featured on the University’s homepage
CFI funding announcements with a special feature on our research surrounding biodegradable polymers and carbon dioxide activation
Filed under: Chemistry Professors, Group News, Science, Students | Tags: carbon dioxide, news, publications, science, students
Fran, Nduka (PhD 2008-2013) and Jenna (PhD 2011-2015) wrote a short review article on copolymerization of carbon dioxide with epoxides late last year and early this year. It has been accepted for publication in a special issue of Dalton Transactions on the topic of “Advances in Metal-Catalysed Polymerisation and Related Transformations”. Although Aluminum catalysts are generally less-reactive than some state of the art catalysts for such reactions, there is significant scope to develop new systems based on this cheap metal. For example, Aluminum can catalyse many different types of polymerization reactions and so one could imagine preparing terpolymers (polymers made up of 3 different sub-units/monomers) or even more complex materials.
Here is a link to the article: http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2013/dt/c3dt00049d
Graphical Abstract for Perspective on Al catalysts for carbon dioxide-epoxide copolymerizations
Biomimetic approach to CO2 capture in the news
Cool research from Newcastle University made it onto the BBC news website. The article also has a nice picture/scheme of conventional CO2-removal technologies using liquid amines. The new approach uses Nickel (which is the element used by sea urchins when they make CaCO3 from CO2)
Filed under: Group News, Science | Tags: aluminum, biodegradable plastics, caprolactone, carbon dioxide, catalysis, chemistry, chromium, Coordination Chemistry, Green polymers, Publication, undergraduate research
Yesterday, the profs got good news from the publishers 😀
Dr. Kerton’s paper was accepted by Organometallics and Dr. Kozak’s paper was accepted by Dalton Transactions.
The Organometallics paper is about the synthesis and reactivity of some aluminum complexes. Some of the compounds were prepared for the first time by Marcus Drover (during his SWASP in summer 2010) and Stephanie Barbon (in summer 2011 as an NSERC USRA/ICE student). Kinetic studies were performed by Nduka on their activity in ring-opening polymerization of caprolactone. He also discovered that the chloride complex could initiate the copolymerization of carbon dioxide and cyclohexene oxide. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/om300757u
The Dalton Transactions paper contains research results from Rebecca’s PhD thesis on copolymerization of carbon dioxide with propylene oxide and addition reactions between styrene oxide and carbon dioxide. This is the second paper published from the Kozak group Cr catalysts for this reaction (Paper 1: Inorg. Chem. 2012) and also builds on results obtained using related Co complexes (Catalysis Communications 2012).
A big thank you to Louise Dawe for her expertise in X-ray crystallography and to all the students involved!
Al complexes for ring-opening polymerization of caprolactone and activation of carbon dioxide
Filed under: Group News, Students | Tags: carbon dioxide, chemistry, green, MSc, PhD, sustainable
Dr. Kozak and Dr. Kerton plan to recruit several new graduate students to being in Fall 2013. (Dr. Kozak also has funding for students to begin in Jan or May 2013).
Projects include:
1. Copolymerization and related transformations of carbon dioxide using chromium (Kozak group) and aluminum (Kerton group) complexes.
2. Catalytic transformations using earth abundant metals, e.g. iron (Kozak group)
3. Catalytic transformations of a renewable amide (Kerton group)
If you are interesting in joining our research team, please contact us for more information. All applications must be submitted via the School of Graduate Studies. Stipends for students in the PhD program are $20,000 per year and in the MSc program, $18,000 per year.
Students in our group gain (1) interdisciplinary training inorganic/organic/analytical in a recently refurbished laboratory; (2) hands on experience using a range of instruments; (3) opportunities to travel and to collaborate.
Most MSc students have published 1 or 2 papers and PhD students 3-5 papers during their studies. See publication lists for more detail.
Currently, we have no funding for postdoctoral fellows BUT researchers are encouraged to apply for Government of Canada Fellowships etc. see details on bottom half of this page.
Filed under: Chemistry Professors, Conferences, Group News, Group Photos, Science | Tags: carbon dioxide, glucosamine, green chemistry, poster, renewable feedstock, sustainable development
Chris and Fran have just returned from their travels in Europe after attending the GRC on Green Chemistry (in Barga, Italy). This meeting was fantastic in terms of science, location, people……in fact it was probably one of the best conferences we have ever been to! Thank you to all who made it the event it was.
Fran gave a talk on the first morning entitled “Chemical transformations of aminocarbohydrates”, which prompted some good discussion and we’ve come away with lots of great new ideas. Chris and Fran also presented their posters over the course of the week, and got to meet some fantastic people.
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.
Green Chemistry @ MUN 