Research « The Erlenmeyer Flask

Originally published in Terra Magazine – January 30, 2015 – by Doug Keszler

I AM OFTEN ASKED ABOUT THE STEPS leading to establishment of the Center for Sustainable Materials Chemistry headquartered at Oregon State University.

The story starts with the glimmer of an idea that emerged in the mid-1980s. The idea took hold in the 1990s, and culminated in 2011 with the establishment of a multi-institutional research center dedicated to developing the next generation of electronic circuits — circuits that are cleaner, cheaper and faster to make for the ever-changing demands of industry and consumers. Driving the center’s formation was a critical mass of relationships, philanthropy, distinctive science, strategic planning, numerous institutional partnerships and opportunities for leveraging.

A PARTNERSHIP BLOSSOMS

In the beginning, there was the OSU Foresight! Campaign, a modest fundraising effort that provided startup packages for three faculty hires in the mid-1980s — a “cluster hire” focused on building the area of materials science. At the time, materials science was a barely emerging field, making OSU an early player. John Wager in electrical engineering and I were two of the hires. We rarely interacted, however, until the mid-1990s. Our collaboration, combining fundamental chemistry and electrical engineering, eventually blossomed and formed the basis for the unique research now done in the Center. Read more…

A NUCLEAR WEAPON IN THE HANDS OF TERRORISTS is the stuff of nightmares, especially for U.S. agencies charged with preventing a devastating attack. When security or law enforcement agents confiscate nuclear or radiological weapons or their ingredients being smuggled domestically or internationally, they must quickly trace them back to their source.

Enter, the science of nuclear forensics. Defined by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as “the ability to trace the source of interdicted materials to their place of origin,” nuclear forensics ranks as a “keystone” of U.S. anti-terrorism policy.

Now, Oregon State University is about to become a player in that effort. A new graduate emphasis in nuclear forensics is being launched in OSU’s Department of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Health Physics with funding from Homeland Security. Courses in nuclear materials science, nuclear forensics analysis and detection of special nuclear material will be added to existing core courses such as radiophysics, radiochemistry and applied radiation safety. Faculty expertise in nuclear engineering, radiation health physics, radiation detection and radiochemistry will anchor the program, along with state-of-the-art lab and spectroscopy facilities in the Radiation Center, says OSU researcher Camille Palmer, who will lead the nuclear forensics emphasis. Read more…

WHAT IF WE COULD TURN EXCESS CO2 into a boon for electronics and other industries?

Chemists and engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a way to do just that. David Ji and his research team have captured atmospheric carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — and used it to make an advanced, high-value material for energy-storage devices that power everything from defibrillators to hybrid electric cars.

This innovation in nanotechnology won’t soak up enough carbon to solve global warming, the researchers say. However, it will provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost way to make “nanoporous graphene,” a pure form of carbon that’s super-strong and ultra-efficient at conducting heat and electricity. All of these properties give nanoporous graphene a big edge over activated carbon, now used in making commercial supercapacitors — devices that can store energy for rapid release. Read more…

Inspiration dissemination is a radio show on 88.7FM every Sunday night at 7 p.m. that features graduate students sharing stories about their research and lives here at OSU. If you are a graduate student and would like to communicate your research to a broad audience, please sign up at the following link: http://goo.gl/forms/wDxnbfUkpj

Originally published by OSU News and Research Communications

December 2, 2014

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Chemists and engineers at Oregon State University have discovered a fascinating new way to take some of the atmospheric carbon dioxide that’s causing the greenhouse effect and use it to make an advanced, high-value material for use in energy storage products.

This innovation in nanotechnology won’t soak up enough carbon to solve global warming, researchers say. However, it will provide an environmentally friendly, low-cost way to make nanoporous graphene for use in “supercapacitors” – devices that can store energy and release it rapidly.

Such devices are used in everything from heavy industry to consumer electronics.

The findings were just published in Nano Energy by scientists from the OSU College of Science, OSU College of Engineering, Argonne National Laboratory, the University of South Florida and the National Energy Technology Laboratory in Albany, Ore. The work was supported by OSU.

In the chemical reaction that was developed, the end result is nanoporous graphene, a form of carbon that’s ordered in its atomic and crystalline structure. It has an enormous specific surface area of about 1,900 square meters per gram of material. Because of that, it has an electrical conductivity at least 10 times higher than the activated carbon now used to make commercial supercapacitors. Read more…

See also:

Controlled Environments Magazine

Two science faculty were elected 2014 Fellows to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Two faculty are in the College of Science: Professor of Chemistry Vincent T. Remcho and Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics P. Andrew Karplus. Professor of Botany and Plant PathologyValerian Dolja in the College of Agricultural Sciences was also named a Fellow.

The accomplishments of the new Fellows will be celebrated at the 2015 AAAS Annual Meeting on February 14, 2015, in San Jose. Election as an AAAS Fellow is an honor bestowed upon members by their peers for scientifically or socially distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Remcho was recognized for his contributions to the field of analytical chemistry, particularly to furthering understanding and development of surface chemistry and transport processes in microscale separations. Karplus and Dolja, who are both researchers in OSU’s Center for Genome Research and Biocomputing, were honored for their work in the biological sciences. Read more…

Superstition says a bride needs four things on her wedding day. Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Milton Harris Professor of Materials Science, Mas Subramanian provided all four of those things recently to the Benton Country Historical Museum for their newest exhibit, Something Old, Something Blue. Something old came in the form of a piece of lapis lazuli shipped all the way from Afghanistan; something borrowed was a reproduction of a cover article written about Mas and his discovery for National Geographic Magazine. Something new and something blue both came in the form of samples of his blue pigment.

This extraordinary blue pigment, discovered by happy accident in 2009, has led to, at last count, two pa Blue Pigment Samples tents, three publications and thousands of Google hits for the OSU scientist and his research team. Created by heating manganese compounds to 2,000 degrees, this pigment is heat reflective, non-toxic (unlike other blue pigments) and much more durable and versatile than blues previously discovered. “One day, a graduate student working on a completely different project was taking samples out of a furnace while I was walking by and it was blue. I realized immediately that something amazing had happened,” states Subramanian when asked how this serendipity had occurred. “The more we discover about the pigment, the more interesting it gets,” Subramanian says. Maybe that’s why Subramanian and his research group have decided to continue their research; attempting to make other colors using the same basic chemistry.

The Something Old, Something Blue exhibition showcases artifacts from the combined Horner Museum and Benton Country Historical Society artifact collections, with an emphasis on the color blue. When asked where the idea came from for Something Old, Something Blue; Mark Tolonen stated, “Most of our exhibitions come from our own collections, of about 120,000 objects. We go through and look for themes and we decided we had enough blue objects for an exhibit.” Some of the additional highlights are, Blues Traveler (international theme), blue fashion, blue in nature, the Boys in Blue (uniforms and school colors) and art.

Something Old, Something Blue will be on display November 14, 2014-October 24, 2015, at the Benton County Historical Museum. 1101 Main St, Philomath, OR 97370. They are open Tuesday thru Saturday 10:00am-4:30pm.

11/26/14 – UPDATE: This exhibit was featured in the Corvallis Gazette Times

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Congratulations to Dr. David Ji for winning the new UVDF (University Venture Development Fund) Award in Chemistry. His research titled, “Prototype development for high-power pseudocapacitors,” won him funding for the next 12 months.

According to Dr. Ji, “The project will study the electrode materials for a device, called supercapacitor, that stores electric energy. If the project is successful, it is expected to provide a higher power at a lower cost compared to the current commercial products. The resulting technology can be used as a power source for transportation such as hybrid electric vehicles, energy storage, for example for solar or wind renewable energy, and electronics, such as digital camera and power tools.”

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Ji on his latest accomplishment!

Chemists from Oregon State University developed a method that detects and measures the chemical composition of the four Corexit surfactants in seawater.

This research also helped to identify best practices that addresses the complexities of sample collection, handling, and storage for improved toxicity testing and biodegradation experiments. They published their findings in the 2014 Deep-Sea Research II: Topical Studies in Oceanography: Trace analysis of surfactants in Corexit oil dispersant formulations and seawater.

During the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, responders applied an unprecedented amount of dispersant at oil coming from the wellhead and on surface slicks. To assist environmental impact assessments, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) obtained the ingredients of four Corexit surfactants commonly known as DOSS, Span 80, Tween 80, and Tween 85. DOSS was the only surfactant that received EPA-determined aquatic life benchmarks for chronic exposure and reporting limits; therefore, it has been the main focus of recent studies to indicate the presence of Corexit. This study’s goals were to develop a sensitive and selective analytical method for quantifying the four surfactant classes in seawater and then use this method to determine the distribution and concentrations of surfactants in the Gulf. Read more…

Update: We’ve also just been informed that the PhD student who originally worked on this research, Dr. Benjamin Place (Class of 2013) recently got hired at NIST. Congratulations, Ben!!

Originally published in Terra Magazine

By: Nick Houtman

October 15, 2014

Mas Subramanian didn’t expect to find a brilliant blue pigment when he was looking for new semiconductors. But the Milton Harris Chair Professor of Materials Science in the Oregon State University Department of Chemistry was shocked in 2009 when he saw a graduate student take a powder with a vibrant blue hue out of a laboratory furnace.

The student was worried. He thought it was a mistake.

“We were trying to find a material with novel magnetic properties for electronics applications, but it didn’t work. I didn’t think it would have a special color. I expected it to be brown or black,” says Subramanian, who grew up in Madras (now called Chennai), India, and received his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Technology. “But when I saw what he had, I knew this was something unusual.”

The new blue is stable and relatively non-toxic. Produced at temperatures in excess of 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit, it reflects infrared energy and may thus help to cool buildings and reduce air conditioning costs. And it can be “tuned,” says Subramanian, to produce a range of shades from sky blue to nearly black. Read more…

The Erlenmeyer Flask

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Category Archives: Research

How OSU became the headquarters for re-imagining the computer chip

Graduate Student, Brittany Robertson featured in Terra Magazine

David Ji featured in Terra Magazine

Inspiration Dissemination on KBVR

Atmospheric carbon dioxide used for energy storage products

Three researchers elected to world’s largest scientific society

Benton County Historical Museum Showcases Blue Discoveries

David Ji Wins New UVDF Award in Chemistry

Jennifer Field Research featured in Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative Magazine

Accidentally Blue: Mas Subramanian featured in Terra Magazine

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