CENTC Undergraduate Summer Research Program Accepting Applications

Get practical experience in Chemical Sciences this summer. CENTC invites college students with an interest in chemistry to apply for a unique summer research program as part of our NSF-funded, collaborative distributed center.

The online application is now available for the CENTC Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Undergraduate fellowships are available to conduct research at a choice of CENTC’s 14 locations during the summer of 2012. The program is 10 weeks long, running from June 11, 2012 through August 17, 2012. Fellows will receive a stipend and compensation for travel and housing. For more information and to complete an application, visit:
http://depts.washington.edu/centc/education_ur.htm

CENTC Sponsors Events at SACNAS National Conference

In recognition of the International Year of Chemistry, CENTC sponsored two events at the 2011 National Conference of the Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native American Scientists (SACNAS) in San Jose California, October 27-30, 2011. The symposium, “An Energy Future with Cleaner, Sustainable Fuels,” highlighted the role of chemistry research in the development of alternative energy sources and featured speakers Daniel Mindiola (Indiana University), Judith Gomez (Colorado School of Mines) and Alan Goldman (Rutgers University). Luis Martinez (Rollins College) chaired the session and also moderated a panel discussion “Research Careers in Academia and Beyond” with five early career chemists from industry, national laboratories and clinical research.

SACNAS is a society of scientists dedicated to advancing Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in science. The 2011 National Conference attracted over 4,000 attendees. Seattle will be the site for the 2012 SACNAS National Conference. To learn more about SACNAS visit http://sacnas.org.

"Chemists - Catalysts for Change" opening at Pacific Science Center

CENTC is pleased to announce the public opening of our new exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center on Sunday, October 23, 2011. The exhibit celebrates the International Year of Chemistry by highlighting current CENTC research and the importance of developing new catalytic processes to make the chemicals society depends on. “Chemists – Catalysts for Change” will occupy the science center’s newest exhibit space, the Portal to Current Research, from October 23, 2011 to February 11, 2012.

The Pacific Science Center opened during the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, becoming the first U.S. museum founded as a science and technology center. The Science Center welcomes nearly one million children and adult visitors each year. To learn more about the Science Center visit http://www.pacsci.org/.

CENTC Research Highlighted on Cover of Angewandte Chemie International Edition

A paper by CENTC investigator Melanie Sanford and coworkers is featured on the back cover of this week’s issue of Angewandte Chemie International Edition. The paper, “Remarkably High Reactivity of Pd(OAc)2/Pyridine Catalysts: Nondirected C-H Oxygenation of Arenes”, describes a new catalyst developed by the CENTC electrophilic oxidation team that shows excellent reactivity in the C-H oxygenation of simple aromatic substances. The Pd/pyridine ratio is critical to both reactivity and site selectivity.

The cover art was designed by Dr. Marion Emmert, now Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.  Read the paper on the journal website.

Melanie Sanford receives MacArthur "Genius" Award

Photo courtesy the John D.
& Catherine T. MacArthur
Foundation.

CENTC investigator Melanie Sanford has been named a recipient of the 2011 John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, otherwise known as the Genius Award. The MacArthur Fellows Program awards unrestricted $500,000 fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction. The award cites Melanie's work “reviving and enhancing approaches to organic synthesis previously set aside because of their technical difficulty”.

Melanie is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Read more about the MacArthur Fellows Program and the full citation of Melanie's award.

Thomas Lyons Awarded NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship

CENTC postdoctoral researcher Dr. Thomas Lyons has been awarded an American Competiveness in Chemistry Fellowship (ACC-F) from the National Science Foundation. The ACC-F program seeks to build ties between academic, industrial, national laboratory, and NSF center researchers, and also involves beginning scientist in efforts to broaden participation in chemistry. Dr. Lyons received his B.S. in Chemistry from DePaul University in 2005 and earned his Ph.D. in 2010 from the University of Michigan working with Melanie Sanford. He is now a postdoctoral fellow at the University of North Carolina with Prof. Maurice Brookhart. This fellowship will support Tom's research on new transition metal-containing catalysts for transfer dehydrogenation of alkanes, which is carried out in collaboration with scientists at Eastman Chemical.

James Mayer Named American Chemical Society Fellow

Congratulations to CENTC investigator James Mayer, who has been named a 2011 American Chemical Society Fellow. The fellows program began in 2009 as a way to recognize and honor ACS members from academe, industry, and government for outstanding achievements in and contributions to science, the profession, and ACS. Prof. Mayer, who will be honored at an induction ceremony on August 29, 2011 during the American Chemical Society National Meeting in Denver, joins CENTC investigators Wes Borden and Bill Jones, and advisory board members Chuck Casey and Anne Gaffney as recipients of this honor. Prof. Mayer is the Alvin L. and Verla R. Kwiram Endowed Professor of Chemistry at the University of Washington, Seattle. Learn more about the fellows program at the ACS website.

Professor James A. Dumesic is the recipient of the 2011 Boudart Award in Catalysis

CENTC researcher Professor James A. Dumesic of the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the recipient of the 2011 Michel Boudart for Advances in Catalysis, sponsored by the Haldor Topsøe Company and administered jointly by the North American Catalysis Society and the European Federation of Catalysis Societies. The Award will be presented at the 22nd North American Meeting of the Catalysis Society (Detroit, June 2011) and at Europacat X (Glasgow, August 2011).

This Award recognizes and encourages individual contributions to the elucidation of the mechanism and active sites involved in catalytic phenomena and to the development of new methods or concepts that advance the understanding and the practice of heterogeneous catalysis. It is meant to recognize individuals who bring together the rigor and the international impact that exemplifies the accomplishments and the career of Professor Michel Boudart.

Professor Dumesic is being specifically recognized for his pioneering work on the transformation of biomass-derived molecules to chemicals and fuels.
 
To read more about the award, visit http://www.nacatsoc.org/news.asp?NewsID=174.

CENTC, Pacific Science Center to Develop Exhibit for International Year of Chemistry

CENTC is pleased to announce that we have received funding from the National Science Foundation to collaborate with the Pacific Science Center in Seattle and create an exhibit for the International Year of Chemistry. This project builds upon the Science Center’s NSF-funded “Portal to the Public” initiative that engages scientists in direct contact with museum visitors of all ages. Pacific Science Center staff and CENTC researchers will work together to develop content for hands-on activities highlighting current CENTC research and the need for development of new catalytic chemical processes to meet the needs of society.  The exhibit is scheduled to launch on Mole Day, October 23, 2011.

The Pacific Science Center opened during the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair, becoming the first U.S. museum founded as a science and technology center. The Science Center welcomes nearly one million children and adult visitors each year. To learn more about the Science Center visit http://www.pacsci.org/.

Susannah Scott Highlighted for International Women's Day at Dalton Transactions

Below, find the press release from Dalton Transactions:

As the 8th March is International Women’s Day Dalton Transactions is highlighting the first published advanced article of the day by a female corresponding author.

Congratulations to Susannah L. Scott, who investigates how pincer-ligated iridium complexes with a phosphinite substituent can be immobilised onto a support to form an effective catalyst for the dehydrogenation of alkanes.

Read the full article to find out more…

Reactions of phosphinites with oxide surfaces: a new method for anchoring organic and organometallic complexes
Brian C. Vicente, Zheng Huang, Maurice Brookhart, Alan S. Goldman and Susannah L. Scott, Dalton Trans., 2011, Advance Article, DOI: 10.1039/C0DT01369B, Paper

For more information on Professor Scott’s work visit her webpage.

Other recent articles by Susannah Scott can be found below:

Catalytic disassembly of an organosolv ligninviahydrogen transfer from supercritical methanol
Katalin Barta, Theodore D. Matson, Makayla L. Fettig, Susannah L. Scott, Alexei V. Iretskii and Peter C. Ford, Green Chem., 2010, 12, 1640-1647

Wavelet transform EXAFS analysis of mono- and dimolybdate model compounds and a Mo/HZSM-5 dehydroaromatization catalyst
Robert O. Savinelli and Susannah L. Scott, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 5660-5667

Electronic structure of alumina-supported monometallic Pt and bimetallic PtSn catalysts under hydrogen and carbon monoxide environment
 Jagdeep Singh, Ryan C. Nelson, Brian C. Vicente, Susannah L. Scott and Jeroen A. van Bokhoven, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 5668-5677

Highly dispersed clay–polyolefin nanocomposites free of compatibilizers, via the in situ polymerization of α-olefins by clay-supported catalysts
Susannah L. Scott, Brian C. Peoples, Cathleen Yung, René S. Rojas, Vikram Khanna, Hironari Sano, Toru Suzuki and Fumihiko Shimizu, Chem. Commun., 2008, 4186-4188

Catalytic ring expansion, contraction, and metathesis-polymerization of cycloalkanes
Ritu Ahuja, Sabuj Kundu, Alan S. Goldman, Maurice Brookhart, Brian C. Vicente and Susannah L. Scott, Chem. Commun., 2008, 253-255

CENTC Welcomes New Advisory Board Members

We are pleased to announce the appointment of five new members to the CENTC Advisory Board. John Briggs, Scientist at Dow Chemical; Richard Cherpeck, Consulting Scientist at Chevron Oronite; Anne Gaffney, Principal Consultant and CTO at AMG Chemistry and Catalysis Consulting and the Langmuir Research Institute; Shane Krska, Senior Investigator at Merck Process Research; and Jeff Scheibel, Principal Scientist at Procter and Gamble have all accepted invitations to three-year terms. They join current CENTC Advisory Board members Emilio Bunel, Director of Chemical Sciences and Engineering at Argonne National Laboratory; Charles Casey, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin - Madison; and Jennifer Holmgren, Chief Executive Officer of LanzaTech.

CENTC Undergraduate Summer Research Program Accepting Applications

Applications are now available for the CENTC Undergraduate Summer Research Program. Undergraduate fellowships are available to conduct research at a choice of CENTC’s 12 locations during the summer of 2011. The program is 10 weeks long, running from June 13, 2011 through August 19, 2011. Fellows will receive a stipend and compensation for travel and housing. For more information and to download an application, visit:
http://depts.washington.edu/centc/education_ur.htm

Melanie Sanford named AAAS Fellow

CENTC researcher, Professor Melanie Sanford, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). AAAS recognizes Fellows for their contributions to science and technology. Prof. Sanford is honored for distinguished contributions to the fields of organic, organometallic, and inorganic chemistry, particularly the development and mechanistic study of new transition metal catalyzed reactions.

Read the full list of elected AAAS Fellows.

For more information about Melanie Sanford and her research, please visit her faculty page and research group website.

A novel route to key aromatics

CENTC researchers have found a new way to create aromatic compounds from straight chains of hydrocarbons by using an iridium-based catalyst. The reaction takes place at much lower temperatures than the conventional way of producing aromatic molecules from hydrocarbon chains and with a much higher degree of control over the end products, some of which are difficult or impossible to obtain by standard routes.

Aromatics are key building block molecules for the chemical industry. They are currently produced mainly by a process of catalytic reforming of petroleum feedstocks, which is carried out at temperatures of around 500°C, and produces a complex mixture of molecules that need to be subsequently separated.

Now a team led by Alan Goldman of Rutgers University and Maurice Brookhart of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has shown that it is possible to produce aromatic molecules from their straight-chain counterparts, n-alkanes, at temperatures several hundred degrees lower than other methods.

Pincer-ligated iridium complex
(Photo: Nature Chem.)

The key to the process is a pincer-ligated iridium complex that acts as a homogeneous catalyst. Here, iridium is clamped by three arms contained within a phosphine-based cage. 'This makes it very stable, allowing it to be heated to the temperatures we need, close to 200°C,' says Brookhart.

When an alkane is introduced to the catalyst, the iridium inserts itself between a C-H bond and pries the hydrogen away, presenting it to a hydrogen acceptor - in this case t-butylethylene. This results in the generation of a double bond within the carbon chain. The process is repeated twice more, creating a triene, which then undergoes cyclisation followed by loss of an additional equivalent of hydrogen to produce the aromatic product.

Different aromatics are produced depending on the number of carbons in the starting alkane. Many of the subsequent products are difficult or impossible to produce by other means says Goldman. 'For example if you start with decane, you end up with linear alkyl aromatics that are normally impossible to obtain with conventional routes, which combine olefins and lighter aromatics. Alternatively, if you tried to make these products from alkanes using current heterogenous routes you would get extensive bond breaking of the carbon chains, whereas we get mostly compounds with the same carbon number as our starting material.'

R. Ahuja et al, Nature Chem., 2010, DOI: 10.1038/nchem.946