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On the Road

Published December 16, 2016

News

Loredana Valenzano (Chem) recently participated in the GIAN program of the Government of India as a co-organizer with Ravindra Pandey (Chem).

Valenzano gave a series of lectures on modeling of materials to graduate students and faculty members at the workshop. She introduced state-of-the-art computational modeling methods to the next generation of students in chemistry, physics and materials science. The workshop was organized by Guru Jambeshwar University of Science and Technology at HIsar, Harayana, India.

Michigan Tech has a large presence in the GIAN program — Amitabh Narain (MEEM), Chandrashekhar Joshi (Bio) and S. Komar Kawatra (ChE) have also participated in the program activities in India.

Climate Discussion Tonight

Published December 1, 2016

By Heather Powers

During the Nov. 3, 2016, Climate Café event, Robert Handler of Michigan Tech’s Sustainable Futures Institute discusses energy efficiency and ways to mitigate climate change. (Video by Keweenaw Now)

The fourth in a series of discussions on climate change will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight at the Orpheum/Studio Pizza in Hancock.

The purpose of this fourth event in the series is to continue the discussions about what activities and topics we should focus on as a local community when we think about climate change impacts and our responses to those impacts.

There are lots of potential strategies to mitigate or adapt to the impacts of climate change, and we want to gather a community of interested people who will help plan the future priorities for our grassroots organization. We will have a few five minute presentations from local people who are developing responses to climate change, and then we will break into groups according to your interests, and start making plans.

The series is organized by the Keweenaw Climate Community, sponsored by the local chapter of the American Chemical Society and the Department of Social Sciences at Michigan Tech.

More can be found out by reading this story in Keweenaw Now.

New PHI 5800 XPS for Surface Analysis

Published November 2, 2016

By Heather Powers

News

The Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory (ACMAL) on campus received a new PHI 5800 X-ray photoelectron spectrometer (XPS). The PHI5800 XPS is equipped with dual source anode (Al and Mg), a hemispherical analyzer, for XPS and AES analysis, including elemental mapping capabilities, an electron gun source for AED analysis, an ion sputter gun for depth profiling, a heatable sample stage, and stage tilting for angle-resolved XPS.

The XPS was generously donated by the Army Research Laboratories with the help from the Department of Chemistry. The new XPS will help ACMAL and chemistry students greatly expand their research.

The Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory is a Michigan Tech University Core Facility which is part of the Materials Characterization & Fabrication Facilities.

Graduate Students Degaga and Valenzano publish

Published August 31, 2016

By Heather Powers

News

Graduate student Gemechis Degaga (Chem) and Loredana Valenzano (Chem) have published the paper “Part I: C2-C4 Hydrocarbons Separation Addressed via Molecular Cluster Models Carved Out from Periodic MOF-74-Mg/Zn Structures” on Chemical Physics Letters. The paper can be found here.

Shiyue Fang DNA research story in Science360

Published August 16, 2016

By Heather Powers

Science360, a science news website published by the National Science Foundation (NSF) featured the synthetic DNA research of Professor Shiyue Fang (Chem) as one of its “Headlines.”

New Glycobiology Study led by Tarun Dam

Published August 5, 2016

By Heather Powers

Tarun Dam led a new study, published this week in Biochemistry, examining the biomechanics of galectin-3’s interaction with glycosaminoglycans (GAG) and proteoglycans. His team includes graduate students Melanie Talaga, Ni Fan, Ashli Fueri, Robert Brown and Research Assistant Professor Purnima Bandyopadhyay.

At the Laboratory of Mechanistic Glycobiology, Dam and his students study the sugar, including glucose and other structural, complex sugars, that fuel our bodies. GAGs assist in controlling growth factor proteins, which go unchecked as cancerous tumors grow.

Even though the findings of the study were unexpected, it opens up new possibilities for understanding glycobiology and biomechanics. “Seeing galectin-3 interact with GAGs and proteoglycans is like finding a rose in the petunias—it’s very unexpected,” Dam says. “It’s fair to say that this requires revisiting the reported biological functions of GAGs, proteoglycans and galectin-3.”

Next, Dam and his team look into additional research, “Now we have to reconsider the whole drama, retracing the steps and actions of that character… we are using cell lines and animal models to study this interaction in a cellular context.”

Xia Research Group in Chemical & Engineering News

Published March 29, 2016

By College of Engineering

News

Deposition followed by etching yields ruthenium nanoframes

Michigan Technological University chemists Xiaohu Xia and Haihang Ye, together with researchers at the University of Texas, Dallas, and elsewhere used a ruthenium chloride solution to preferentially deposit ruthenium on the edges and corners of nanosized palladium octahedral seed crystals.

A Noble Calling: Ruthenium Nanoframes Open the Doors to Better Catalysts

The world is run by catalysts. They clean up after cars, help make fertilizers, and could be the key to better hydrogen fuel. Now, a team of chemists, led by Xiaohu Xia from Michigan Technological University, has found a better way to make metal catalysts.

“We are fine-tuning the surface, size, shape and crystal structure,” he says. “Our goal is to increase their catalytic activity while reducing the usage of this precious material.”