Filed under: Group News, Science | Tags: biorefinery, canada, ChemSusChem, chitin, chitosan, DAAD RISE, glucosamine, green chemistry, Memorial University, research, sustainable development
Congratulations to Khaled on his Departmental Seminar yesterday.
He received two bits of exciting news today:
1) His research on the production of levulinic acid and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural has made it into the top ten most accessed articles in Green Chemistry for April 2012.
2) His full paper on the formation of an amidofuran from N-acetyl D-glucosamine has been accepted for publication in the prestigious journal ChemSusChem. (Impact Factor, 6.3). In this work, we note that the presence of main-group elements (B & Cl) in your feedstock can have a significant effect on the reaction outcomes.
Also, congratulations to Linda (one of our DAAD RISE summer researchers who visited our group in summer 2011) – who is a co-author on the ChemSusChem paper.
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: 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
Green Chemistry @ MUN 