March 23, 2012 marks the 50th Anniversary of Neil Bartlett’s groundbreaking discovery of the first noble gas compound. Prior to Bartlett's discovery, all chemistry textbooks were written with the...
Research Highlights Archive
Heterogenous Atmospheric Chemistry
Hydrolysis of N2O5 on aqueous particles coated with organic films.
The reaction of N2O5 with aqueous particles plays a key role in regulating tropospheric ozone which is a greenhouse gas and pollutant at ground level. Previous research has shown that N2O5 hydrolysis is efficient on pure aqueous particles...
Kinetics and Mechanisms of Ice Nucleation in the...
The effect of acid coatings on the ice nucleation properties of mineral dust.
Mineral dust particles are abundant in the atmosphere, and both laboratory and field measurements have shown that mineral dust particles are effective ice nuclei. During their lifetime in the atmosphere, mineral dust particles can become coated...
Hygroscopic Properties and Phase Transitions of...
Atmospheric aerosol particles can undergo several types of phase transitions. Two types of atmospherically relevant phase transitions are efflorescence and deliquescence. Efflorescence is controlled by kinetics since there is a free energy barrier to formation of solid nuclei, whereas deliquescence is controlled by thermodynamics. In order to predict the chemistry of atmospheric aerosols and...
Aerosol Mass Spectrometry (Instrument Development)
Background
Atmospheric aerosols contain numerous species including sulfates, nitrates, and organics. A very significant mass fraction (20–90%) of the submicron aerosol component is composed of, or contains, organic molecules. The challenges in their characterization lie in part in their enormous variety and complexity...
AMS Field Studies
The transport of large amounts of gaseous and particulate pollutants across the oceans has become an important area of atmospheric research in recent years. For instance, it has been shown that significant amounts of mercury, ozone and mineral dust are transported from East Asia to Western North America. While data on the long term impact of these transport patterns is...
Computer Simulations of Ice Nucleation
The ice nucleation studies in our laboratory have also led to a collaboration with Gren Patey (at UBC) involving computer simulations to better understand and predict ice nucleation on a molecular level. This collaboration has shown that the good ice nucleation characteristics of mineral dust are not likely due to the crystallographic match between mineral surfaces...
Electrosorption Studies
Lipid Physisorption:
The electrode surface can be modified through physiorption of lipid-like molecules, such as octadecanol. This adsorbed layer can change its orientation or organization on the surface in response to changes in the electrode potential. At negative potentials, this layer can be forced off the electrode surface and exist as aggregates near the electrode surface. We...
Fuel Cell Electrocatalysis
Alloys of Pt have been shown to improve the kinetics of oxygen reduction. We have found that the deposition of Zn onto Pt creates a substrate upon which we have measured the kinetic parameters for the electrodeposition of Zn under close-to-industrial conditions. We are now studying the chemical nature of the surface alloy using UHV techniques such as Auger Spectroscopy. We have also found that...
Macromolecular Therapeutics
A) High molecular weight Iron chelators for Chelation therapy:
Fundamental studies are directed towards the development of blood compatible Iron chelating polymers which could bind Iron inside the human body and excrete it through kidney. Applications include the development of treatments to secondary iron overload, a condition caused by severe blood transfusion (e.g....
Polymer Cell Derivatization Technology (Universal...
Our focus is on the development of polymeric cell derivatization technology for the creation of universal blood donor cells. We are developing novel polymers and polymerization techniques to couple polymers on to erythrocytes towards this purpose. We are also extending the application of this technology for converting red cells as a carrier for homeostatic and antithrombotic drugs.
Development of Blood Compatible Surface Coatings
Our lab is interested in the development of anti-thrombotic polymeric coating for implants. Our goal is to understand the various processes when blood comes in contact with a polymeric surface using various blood interaction analysis and proteomic methods. Novel polymer derivatization techniques being developed to manipulate its surface interaction with blood and other biological fluids. On a...
Development of Polymeric Reagents for Proteomic...
Proteomics relies upon high efficiency mass spectrometry (MS) analysis of tryptic peptides of up to thousands of proteins present in biological compartments. MS based functional proteomics has emerged as a powerful tool in quantifying and analyzing proteome modifications submitted to different treatments. However, the complexity and high dynamic range of proteins in living organisms and the...
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