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, 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 