Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: biomass, chemistry, green chemistry, Green polymers, Memorial University, research, students
There has been lots of exciting news from the Green Cat Chem group over the last few months! Let’s begin by congratulating everyone on successfully publishing multiple manuscripts! 🎉
Publications
- F. M. Kerton, “Applying the principles of green chemistry to achieve a more sustainable polymer life cycle,” Current Opinion in Green and Sustainable Chemistry, 2025, 51, 100996. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsc.2024.100996)
- K. V. M. Hanrahan, C. M. Meyers, C. W. Vos, J.-B. Lin and C. M. Kozak, “Kinetic studies of zirconium-catalyzed ring-opening copolymerization of epoxide and cyclic anhydride,” Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2025, e-First. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjc-2024-0201)
- S. Boudreau, S. Hrapovic, E. McIsaac, E. Lam, F. Berrué and F. M. Kerton, “Transforming waste fish bones into nanoparticles with ultrasound and aqueous organic acids,” RSC Sustainability, 2025, 3, 2325-2332. (DOI: 10.1039/D5SU00164A)
- O. N. Egbe, B. H. P. Morrissey, F. M. Kerton and T. J. Stockmann, “Anodic expulsion of Cu nanoparticles from a polycrystalline Cu substrate: a novel corrosion and single entity study approach,” Nanoscale, 2025, 17, 10609-10619. (DOI: 10.1039/D4NR04863F)
- J. N. Murphy, M. A. Morgan, S. Christian-Robinson, M. M. Fitzgerald and F. M. Kerton, “Optimized process to produce calcium acetate from waste blue mussel shells and its use as a de-icer,” Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2025, e-First. (DOI: https://doi.org/10.1139/cjc-2024-0279)
- S. Christian-Robinson, F. Kong, E. B. Easton and F. M. Kerton, “Modification of calcium carbonate from blue mussel shells with copper oxide nanoparticles,” RSC Sustainability, 2025, 3, 3009-3018. (DOI: 10.1039/D5SU00188A)
- M. D. Wheeler and F. M. Kerton, “Borane-catalysed cyclodepolymerization of CO2-derived polycarbonates”, Faraday Discussions, 2025, Accepted Manuscript. (DOI: 10.1039/D5FD00050E)
- J. E. Peddle, C. M. Laprise, M. D. Wheeler, M. M. Fitzgerald, F. M. Kerton and C. M. Kozak, “Ocean Biomass-derived Feedstocks for Non-Isocyanate Polyurethane Synthesis,” Faraday Discussions, 2025, Accepted Manuscript. (DOI: 10.1039/D5FD00059A)
- M. J. J. Laprade, K. N. Robertson, J. A. C. Clyburne and C. M. Kozak, “A new class of ligand derived from the reactions of bis(dialkylphosphino)amines and 9-diazofluorene: preparation, structure and reactivity,” Dalton Transactions, 2025, 54, 11382-11397. (DOI: 10.1039/D4DT03402C)
Conferences & Summer Schools
Many students from Green Cat Chem had the privilege to present at several conferences and attend summer schools during the past few months. Throughout May and June, Prof. Kerton and Prof. Kozak attended multiple conferences, including the Commonwealth Chemistry Congress in South Africa, the International Conference on Sustainable Chemistry for Net Zero in Scotland, the RSC Sustainability Symposium in England, and the Gordon Research Conference on Biobased Chemicals and Materials in Maine.
At the CSC Conference this year in Ottawa, Prof. Kerton and Prof. Kozak had the opportunity to present their research as well as many of their students, including Sarah Boudreau, Cyler Vos, Amy Mitchell, Megan Graham, Meghan McKeeman, Mikhailey Wheeler, Olivia Wyper, Megan Fitzgerald, and Emily Wiseman.
Prof. Kerton, Prof. Kozak, Sarah, Mikhailey, and Olivia presented at the ACS Green Chemistry & Engineering Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. Before the conference officially started, Olivia took part of a service project in North Pittsburgh neighbourhoods and helped organized Beyond Benign’s Green Chemistry Committment summit with Mikhailey and other international students. At this summit, Prof. Kerton was invited to give a short presentation. At the awards banquet on the first evening, Sarah accepted the Joseph Breen Memorial Fellowship from the ACS GCI.
Prof. Kerton, the chair of the Committee on Chemical Research Applied to World Needs (CHEMRAWN), represented Canada at IUPAC2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Not only did she present at the CHEMRAWN Meeting and represented Canada at the IUPAC Council Meeting, but she was also at the World Chemistry Leadership Meeting and she was a keynote speaker in the symposium “Towards a Sustainable Future: Engaging Society for a Systemic Change”. Prof. Kerton will be the chair of IUPAC2027 in Montreal, QC which will be held in conjunction with CSC 2027. We look forward to it!
Sarah travelled to Burlington, VT for the ACS GCI Green & Sustainable Chemistry Summer School from July 26 to August 1, 2025. During this year’s summer school, multiple green chemistry topics were explored including metrics, green solvents, earth-abundant catalysis, renewable feedstocks, circularity, molecular design, and designing safer chemicals for healthy communities. She presented two research posters and a group presentation on 6PPD.
Mikhailey, Emily, Meghan, and Oforbuike Egbe attended the Centre for Innovation and Research on Carbon Utilization in Industrial Technologies (CIRCUIT) Summer School in Quebec City, QC where they presented research posters and learned about electrochemical CO2 systems, applications of AI models, and current achievements in CO2 electrolyzers.
We now all look forward to a productive start to the Fall semester next month, and hope everyone gets the opportunity to enjoy the last few weeks of Summer! 😎
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)
New Core Sciences Building on the horizon at MUN
The department of chemistry will be moving to a new home in ~5 years time! Exciting times are ahead for our research team.
…on your award (1st place!) at the 20th annual Chemistry Colloquium Contest! Sorry we didn’t post this sooner but we were waiting for a departmental press release first.
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: Conferences, Group News, Group Photos, Science, Students | Tags: Canadian Chemistry, chemistry, CSC, green chemistry, poster
Chris, Fran, Khaled and Nduka have been enjoying the science and Albertan hospitality at the CSC
Chris and Fran spoke in the metal-mediated polymerization symposium organized by Mike Shaver and Paul Hayes. Nduka presented his poster in the same symposium on Sunday evening and Khaled presented his poster in the Industrial division on Monday night.
Thanks to all the organizers and volunteers for a fantastic meeting.
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, 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
Green Chemistry @ MUN 