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accnCANADIAN CHEMICAL NEWS L'ACTUALITÉ CHIMIQUE CANADIENNE

MINING ASTEROIDS IN SPACE COMING CLOSER TO REALITY

OTTAWA WELCOMES NEW DIRECTOR AT WORLD-CLASS CATALYSIS CENTRE

OCEANS

in perilInvestigating the effects of climate change

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th CANADIAN CHEMISTRY CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION

A CELEBRATION OF CHEMISTRY

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A CELEBRATION OF CHEMISTRY

4 May/June 2016 www.cheminst.ca/magazine

The Arctic Ocean is being affected by climate change. Marine scientists Philippe Tortell and Roger Francois of the University of British Columbia are researching the chemical , biological and physical makeup of the Arctic in order to determine the effects of anthropogenic changes in northern waters. Story on Page 24. Photo: Nina Schuback.

Feature stories

34CHEMISTRY

Under pressure Researchers assess the impact of climate change in Arctic waters.

By Roberta Staley

24CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

Celestial mining Mining asteroids will require extraordinary advances in technology.

By Elizabeth Howell

30BUSINESS

Farmer in the lab Organic chemist Michael Organ almost took over the family farm.

By Tim Lougheed

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Table of ContentsMay | June 2016 Vol.68, No.3

9 FROM THE EDITORBy Roberta Staley

10POLICY PUNDITUniversities Canada chair Elizabeth Cannon on scientists speaking up. By Peter Calamai

13 GUEST COLUMNProcess safety and occupational safety must be managed separately. By Brian D. Kelly

14 CLASS DISTINCTIONGraydon Snider is tops not only at competitive running but air quality analysis.

By Roberta Staley

15 INTELLECTUAL MATTERSPatent laws for drugs must be flexible when epidemics arise. By Mike Fenwick

46CHEMFUSION Bad reporting can mislead consumers about the contents of food.By Joe Schwarcz

16 CHEMICAL NEWS• Unravelling carbocation dynamics• DNA as a printing press • Maple syrup’s sweet therapy

Columns Departments

44 THEN AND NOWThe Montreal branch of global chemical giant Johnson Matthey manufactured and distributed platinum laboratory ware.

40 SOCIETY NEWS• Inorganic chemistry winners• CIC submits briefs to Ottawa• Engineers give kudos to ACCN

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From the Editor

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORRoland Andersson, MCIC

EDITOR Roberta Staley

NEWS EDITORTim Lougheed

ART DIRECTION & GRAPHIC DESIGNKrista Leroux

CONTRIBUTING EDITORSPeter CalamaiTyler HamiltonTyler Irving

COLUMNISTSPeter Calamai Mike FenwickJoe Schwarcz, MCIC

SOCIETY NEWSLyndsay BurmanAmy Reckling Gale Thirlwall

DIRECTOR, COMMUNICATIONS AND MARKETINGBernadette Dacey, MCIC

CIRCULATION Michelle Moulton

DIRECTOR, FINANCE AND ADMINISTRATIONJoan Kingston

EDITORIAL BOARDEmily Cranston, MCICJoe Schwarcz, MCIC, chairMilena Sejnoha, MCICBernard West, MCIC

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Several decades ago, ecologist and scien-tist Rachel Carson, who authored

numerous books on ocean ecosystems, wrote: “It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose, should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist: the threat is rather to life itself.”

Today, we are even more acutely aware of what is happening in the oceans due to climate change. But just how the natural mechanisms within the oceans may change — and what feedback effects those changes will have on the climate — remain mysterious. The feature, “Under Pressure,” explores the work by University of British Columbia ocean researchers Philippe Tortell and Roger Francois as they investigate the changes occurring in Arctic seawaters.

In the feature “Celestial Mining,” ACCN is boldly going where no issue has gone before — exploring the viability of mining asteroids in the solar system. One day soon, technology may advance to the point where it becomes economical to extract things like water and minerals from these chunks of floating rock.

Another feature, “The Farmer in the Lab,” reveals how agriculture’s loss is chem-istry’s gain. York University organic chemist Michael Organ, the new director of the University of Ottawa’s Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation, considered a career as a farmer before entering academia. But the lessons of the field never left him during his venerable and renowned career. “I have a simple view of life,” Organ says.“Real innovation comes at the grass roots.”

Rounding out our features is a stellar lineup of stories in the Chemical News section. Tim Lougheed explores how gamma irradiation can be used to remediate oil sands tailings and return them to a state fit for biological habitation. Other items investigate the use of metal organic frameworks as a means of sequestering CO2, the use of poly-phenols from maple syrup as a therapy for Alzheimer’s, as well as the slightly surprising revelation that metal fuels — first discovered by the Chinese more than 1,000 years ago — might help wean our economy off carbon-based energy sources.

Last but not least, congratulations to ACCN contributor Mark Lowey of Calgary, who is this year’s recipient of the annual Award of Journalism Excellence in Engineering from Engineers Canada. Lowey won for his article “Pipe Dream,” which ran in the May-June 2015 edition of ACCN. The article assessed the risks and poten-tial hazards of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project.

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ACCN welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected]. Letters should be sent with the writer’s name and daytime phone number.

All letters will be edited for clarity and length.

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Policy Pundit

When Elizabeth Cannon joined the engineering faculty at the University of Calgary in 1991 she doubled the number of women professors — from one to two. Her gender trail-blazing continued as dean of the Schulich

School of Engineering and, since July 2010, as the university’s president and vice-chancellor, now in her second term.

The 56-year-old Cannon holds a PhD in geomatics engineering from Calgary and her research into Global Positioning Systems has led to technology commercializations around the world. Already a passionate advocate for the university, for Calgary and for women in engineering, Cannon took on a new advocacy role in October 2015 as chair of the board of directors of Universities Canada, formerly the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. Her inaugural speech showcased five new commitments by the 97 member universities to strengthen ties to the private sector, government and non-profits as well as providing students with enriched learning and real-life skills. Cannon also said that Universities Canada would provide all MPs with a solid orientation on higher education, research and innovation. In addition she promised that universities would strengthen their role “as convenors of meaningful dialogue and places of new thinking on issues of importance to Canadians by cultivating leaders and third-party champions across the country.”

By Peter Calamai

University of Calgary president and vice-chancellor Elizabeth Cannon, who also chairs Universities Canada, is helping nurture closer ties between the scientific community and Ottawa’s elected MPs.

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Engineering change


Policy Pundit

Q How would you rate the general health of science and technology in Canada today?

A On some measures we’re doing pretty well. In the report of the Council of Canadian Academies there were some positive signals about public interest and appreciation for science and technology. We’re certainly hearing that from the new Liberal government about the use of science and evidence-based decision making. But if you start to peel away some of the layers and you look at things like uptake of PhD graduates into the economy, into industry for example, or support to our federal research funding agencies when you adjust for inflation, we’re not really keeping up with our peer countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). There are other areas of concern that will be very important to address, not the least of which is industry’s investment in research and innovation.

Q The 2014 report from the Science, Technology and Innovation Council (STIC) said we were falling behind our global competitors in key performance indicators in business innovation. The trend line was down and no strategies to remedy this seemed to be working.

A I think it’s not one silver bullet that’s going to fix this issue, which is highly complex. And frankly there may not be one solution that works for the entire country. We know the level of educational attain-ment of managers in this country lags behind the United States. The uptake of PhDs in this country lags behind our peer countries. If you’re not bringing in the most highly educated — those with the exposure to the leading aspects of their disciplines — if they’re not going in to help drive the economy and society forward, you’re never going to be leading edge in terms of innova-tion and productivity overall.

Q Of the 338 MPs in the new Parliament, 28 have first degrees of some sort in science, engineering or the life sciences. But interestingly only six of those 28 are in engineering. It doesn’t seem that Parliament has the right complexion to hear your argu-ment for a well-rounded approach.

A As an engineer I don’t see a lot of my colleagues stepping into politics. Part of it may be other opportunities we have or just the nature of the training we go through doesn’t necessarily lead you, unfortunately, to more of the public policy or elected offices. I’m delighted that our new Minister of Science Kirsty Duncan not only has a science-based background but an academic background. She’s very credible when she speaks about the importance of science (and I’m using that word very broadly) in evidence-based decision making. That was a huge signal for our community.

Q Will evidence-based decision making make decision making any easier?

A I’m not sure that’s actually going to be the case. You can’t just put the evidence out there. As a community we have to ensure there is good evidence. The ques-tion is how it’s going to be used. To me, leadership has to have the political courage to use that evidence to make some-times tough but right decisions for the country. I hope by being grounded in an evidence-based approach the trust in our government, the credibility in approaches and decision making will be enhanced so that the public will become accustomed to a culture of using evidence to make the right decisions.

Q Do you expect engineers to play a bigger role than they have so far in this sort of thing?

A As engineers — sometimes we call ourselves the “silent profession” — we’re

not necessarily as active as we could or should be on some large public policy issues or societal challenges. Perhaps we have tended towards an attitude of “well, the facts will speak for themselves” but it’s what you do with the facts, how they’re communicated and how they’re used to make evidence-based decisions that’s really going to be the test of a community in the long term. So I hope engineers do play an increasingly important role in these dialogues as other professions, other disciplines and other communities have for a long time.

Q What’s being done at U of C to combat the legacy of engineering as the “silent profession,” to convince engi-neers they should be more engaged with public policy?

A Canada will stand out through not only the quality of engineering educa-tion that we have — which is very, very highly visible on the world stage – but the ability of our engineers to go beyond the technology. What engineers in Canada have done, but can do more of, is ensuring that they leverage their great engineering rigour for more leadership. So our engi-neering school has a very strong focus on leadership. We call it Going Beyond Engineering. We nurture that, we have leadership programs for our students, leadership coaching, we invest in extra-curricular activities for our students to get involved in clubs teams and international travel to help students develop outside the classroom. To me, this is as impor-tant as inside the classroom. These are all helping nurture students not only for their academic programs but their personal development to give them the skills and the confidence to stand up and be leaders.

This interview has been condensed and edited.


Guest Column

O ccupational safety aims at avoiding workplace injuries and ensuring a safe and healthy work environ-ment. It utilizes rules, training and

personal protective equipment to achieve that goal. It is an individual responsibility of each and every worker. Companies also have a responsibility to support and promote occupational safety; codes and regulations are in place to help ensure this. The corpo-rate support for occupational safety varies somewhat depending on the type of industry and its associated hazards.

Why does an employer care about occupational safety? Concern for safety drives effective teamwork and solidarity. Alternatively, if workers cannot look after their own health and safety, how can they be responsible in an operating plant? Make no mistake about it — occupational safety initiatives are effective and remain an important pillar in industry.

Such initiatives include a moral respon-sibility to protect workers, which takes us to the subject of process safety. Unlike occupational safety, process safety deals with protecting workers who have no direct control over hazards they might be exposed to. That is not to suggest that process workers are not responsible for their work. However, others who are not directly involved with immediate hazards could nevertheless be impacted should something go wrong. One way of dealing with this challenge is close and timely communication across different disciplines, trades and organizational boundaries about current conditions — what is referred to as a “management system,” a framework of activities that addresses a common contributor to past incidents. Several management systems or elements comprise a process safety program, such as risk assess-ment, operating procedures, process safety information and management of change. If these systems are to add value they must be implanted at the field level and practiced

By Brian D. Kelly

on a daily basis. They must not reside in an office building.

On an industrial worksite, many workers are directly engaged in the use of tools and equipment. Their training in the use of these devices is the essence of occupa-tional safety. On the other hand, a process safety event may release hazardous material or energy over a wide area and can catch workers unawares, especially if they were not directly involved with the equipment that caused the release. Such workers have no recourse other than to retreat to a safe area — if that option is viable.

How can an operation justify placing workers in harm’s way with no means of defence? It cannot be done, which is the essence of process safety. Does a good process safety program displace or negate the need for an occupational safety program? The answer is clearly no. Process safety does not address normal workplace injuries nor does it examine industrial hygiene issues such as illness or disease.

Process safety is about systems. It must be driven from the top of a corporation or oper-ating organization. The behaviour of workers during normal as well as unusual situations must be defined and supported with training, practices and procedures. The resulting work-place culture will place safety and survival ahead of daily production targets.

Managing both sides of the workplace safety coin

What does process safety look like in a typical operating plant environment and how does it differ from occupational safety? Occupational safety is taught to all staff upon employment and is typically supported by trained safety officers. These individuals serve as auditors and facilitators in the workplace. They answer questions and observe activities. They are dedicated and highly visible.

In contrast, process safety is a line func-tion closely integrated into the operation. Resources dedicated to this function should provide more of a coordinating role, ensuring that important activities are assigned to people in operating roles. A small group of technical specialists and engineers often help with the design and evaluation of physical safeguards. If that technical resource group becomes too large the ownership and focus on process safety could easily shift from the operation to the office and process safety benefits will not be realized.

A single program to manage both process safety and occupational safety may appear to have economic benefits but it is often incapable of addressing the key focus areas of either. Process safety and occupational safety draw on different skill sets. They must not compete for resources.

Brian D. Kelly, PEng, is the principal of BriRisk Consulting Ltd. in Calgary.


Class Distinction

Last summer, Dalhousie University’s Graydon Snider was on the roof of a half-built office building in Bangladesh setting up a neph-

elometer — an air sampler device — to measure the concentration of suspended particulates in the thick, grimy air. The only space available for the instrument, which Snider brought to Bangladesh from Canada, was this roughed-in roof where building construction had stopped — most likely permanently. Once Snider returned home, Bangladeshi technicians would only need to download the air-quality data from a simple SD memory card in the nephelometer then email it to Snider. “Nothing fancy,” Snider says. Increasingly in places like Bangladesh, as well as other

By Roberta Staley

parts of the developing world, moderniza-tion means industrialization and with it decreased air, land and water quality. It is imperative for human health, says Snider, that such pollution levels be monitored and recorded.

A third-year postdoctoral fellow, Snider is part of Dalhousie’s Surface PARTiculate mAtter Network (SPARTAN) research group, which is collecting and measuring aerosols hazardous to people. SPARTAN’s air sampler devices are being set up in those countries where populations are known to suffer from high levels of particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as PM2.5. Such matter is associated with respiratory, lung cancer and cardiac problems. “The number of annual deaths around the globe attributable to PM2.5 are on the order of three million,” Snider says. Countries like Bangladesh that have few available resources to monitor atmospheric particles are often the nations most in need of data. A lack of emission control stan-dards, in addition to widespread coal-fired plants, an increase in vehicles on the road, numerous small-scale factories, outdoor cooking and the burning of biomass such as garbage creates thick, unhealthy air. Such noxious particulates include nitrogen dioxide (NO2), sulphur dioxide (SO2), sulphates and black carbon from various forms of organic combustion. “These all bundle together as PM2.5,” says Snider.

Snider and his SPARTAN co-researchers have collected data from Buenos Aires, Nigeria, Israel, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Manila and parts of the United States. They ensure that the information is freely available online for researchers and governments, while using the data to analyze PM2.5 patterns, Snider says. This is important information for the World Health Organization, which is increasingly

Rarefied air

concerned about urban air quality and the deleterious health effects on citizens.

Atmospheric chemistry has been an interest of Snider’s since his fourth year of undergrad honours studies at Carleton University. He then attended McGill University, taking one year of a master’s degree before transferring to a PhD, focusing his studies on mercury oxidation chem-istry and kinetics. A byproduct of coal-fired plants, mercury becomes a hazard when it is converted into methylmercury by microor-ganisms in the environment. In this form, mercury bioaccumulates in the food chain, working its way into big creatures like whales and tuna. “It’s unhealthy for the animals” as well as those who eat them, says Snider. It also “shows how dynamic the atmosphere is and how quickly mercury can spread,” he adds.

Snider is interested in atmospheric condi-tions for another reason — he is a long distance runner who came eighth in the nation in the 2015 Canadian Half Marathon Championships in Calgary. He also writes for Canadian Running and contributed an article last year where he ranked 158 of the biggest marathons in the world according to their NO2 and PM2.5 levels. His report revealed that the three unhealthiest places in the world to run a marathon are Beijing in China, Seoul in South Korea and Ahmedabad in India. “Although lots of places in India are more polluted than most parts of China, I still can’t believe that people still run the Beijing Marathon — I have no plans to run it,” Snider says.

Snider also rated Canadian marathons, most of which achieved a “good” ranking. Toronto, Niagara Falls and Montreal received a “moderate” ranking, although all were considered healthy places to race. Such sidelines to his research, says Snider, show how chemistry and running “complement each other in interesting ways.”

Particulate matter holds special interest for atmospheric chemist Graydon Snider, who is not

only a Dalhousie University postdoctoral fellow but a competitive long-distance runner.

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Graydon Snider


Intellectual Matters

In the early 1980s, the world became aware of a viral disease that was causing a number of rare diseases among a variety of groups, including intravenous drug

users, homosexual men and haemophil-iacs. The condition, of course, was AIDS, caused by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Shortly after the identifica-tion of the virus, scientists began working on possible treatments, culminating in the first anti-viral treatment for HIV, called azidothymidine (AZT). The drug reduced the amount of the virus in the body, thus diminishing the risk of developing AIDS-related illnesses. Since the development of AZT, well over a dozen other anti-retro-viral drugs have been developed by major pharmaceutical companies, many of which are, or were, patent protected. In the early 1990s, the annual cost for treatment with AZT approached $10,000. Subsequent to the development of these drugs, pharma-ceutical companies were criticized for not allowing access to the drugs in impover-ished nations, as people simply could not afford the high prices charged in devel-oped countries.

During the crisis, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were critical of phar-maceutical companies as a result of their strong stance on intellectual property laws, even in countries where patients could not afford the patented medicines. While a country such as South Africa could have simply ignored the patents protecting the medicines, they were concerned that doing so would result in economic sanctions for breaching international trade agreements.

In response to the perceived failings of pharmaceutical companies to address the issue of epidemics, some governments, including Canada, enacted laws that allowed for the exportation of patented medicines to impoverished nations. In 2003, Canada enacted The Jean Chrétien Pledge

By Mike Fenwick

to Africa Act, which allows for generic manufacturers to be granted compulsory licenses to produce patented drugs. The drugs can then be exported to developing coun-tries to address public health problems, especially those resulting from HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.

In their initial response to the AIDS crisis, pharmaceu-tical companies argued that without strong intellectual property laws protecting their medicines around the world, other countries would begin to ignore the patents that protected the drugs. If there were no ramifications for ignoring patents in one country, there would be no deterrence for other countries to not follow suit. Without such protection, it was argued, companies would not recoup their huge investments in research and develop-ment. Eventually, drug companies entered into preferred pricing arrangements with developing countries to sell the patented medicines at a much lower cost. In addi-tion, they established various drug donation programs to address such epidemics.

There are no easy answers in a public health policy debate concerning access to life-saving medicines, especially when viewed in a global context. Before debating the issue however, it should be remembered that phar-maceutical companies are not the cause of the epidemics; they simply respond where they feel there is a need. While their response may be profit driven, it does not change the fact that the AIDS epidemic, for example, is simply not their doing. The landscape of patented medicines is a veritable minefield of complicated issues that pharmaceutical companies must navigate. Whether fair or

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Epidemics create quandries for drug companies

not, few other technology companies have to address life-or-death decisions with respect to their intellectual property. Since the AIDS crisis, pharmaceutical companies have become much more aware of the need for access to medicines in developing countries. For example, in a report by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations, the research-based phar-maceutical industry has pledged to donate 14 billion treatments between 2011 and 2020 for the treatment of neglected tropical diseases, such as leprosy and river blindness.

Pharmaceutical companies may be able to provide the means for the treatment of global epidemics. However, they form only one part of the solution to such problems. Governments, NGOs and patients them-selves must all be involved in a sustained and coordinated effort in the education, treatment and, hopefully, the eradication of diseases.

Mike Fenwick is a patent lawyer with Bereskin and Parr LLP in Toronto and holds

a master’s degree in organic chemistry.


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By Tim Lougheed

ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY

Cleaning up oil sands tailings with gamma irradiation An investigation that began as a straightforward chemical analysis of oil sands tailings has yielded a patented method for turning this tainted material into a rich biological habitat.

It was not exactly what University of Windsor biogeochemistry professor Chris Weisener had in mind when he first tried out the idea of employing gamma irradiation (GI) to this waste product. The original goal was simply to get rid of whatever living specimens remained in those samples in order to measure the oxygen demand of the sediments, a key factor that could limit the success of soil reclamation efforts.

However, what he and UWindsor biology professor Jan Ciborowski found was that the GI treatment dramatically reduced the levels of organic pollutants — primarily naphthenic acids — concentrated in the tailings by the oil sand extraction process. Irradiation eliminated as much as 95 percent of those compounds that were floating freely in water and 55 percent of those bound within solid particles. The levels of these declines were high enough that it was expected that bacteria, invertebrates and plants could thrive if reintroduced into the material.

Companies working in the oil sands region, which have a vested interest in improving the future of this now-notorious landscape, wanted to know if this approach could provide them with a new remediation strategy. That interest became the basis of an NSERC Collaborative Research Development grant with Weisener and Ciborowski. The grant would support laboratory testing at the university’s Great Lakes Institute for Environmental Research as well as in on-site mesocosms in northern Alberta. “We started to monitor the process to see if plants and a healthy microbial and aquatic community would establish,” says Weisener, adding that the results thus far have been impressive. “This was like a virtual banquet for this GI-treated material.”

Weisener and Ciborowski subsequently took out a patent on the technique, then engaged some graduate students to explore its impli-cations. Master’s student Danielle VanMensel has been assessing the response of microbiological communities in GI-treated tailings,

while master’s student Chantal Dings-Avery and doctoral student Thomas Reid have been examining how these materials respond to the field environment.

Environment Canada has also helped the team get to areas near Fort McMurray that have remained untouched by any kind of human development. According to Reid, these sites serve as valuable biological and chemical reference points, demonstrating the kind of wetlands the region would naturally support.

Weisener points out that oil sands operators already spend millions of dollars restoring the places where they work, often turning what had been a near-desert before extraction into grassland, forest or wetlands. While the very term “irradiation” may not sit well with many critics of this branch of the petroleum industry, the process poses none of the long-term health hazards typically associated with nuclear products. It has, in fact, been long used for extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables and for municipal wastewater treatment.

While many people may be more comfortable with treatment technologies such as ultraviolet light exposure or ozonation, Weisner points out that these familiar and well established methods are almost exclusively suited to water. “The advantage of GI is that it not only works on water but also opaque or translucent materials,” he says. “If you’ve got muddy waters or turbid solutions, sometimes UV treatments and ozonation won’t work in that kind of environment.”

Even more significantly, GI’s ability to restore tailings and sedi-ments at the bacterial level could represent unprecedented progress for “kick starting” reclamation efforts. The working assumption behind this treatment strategy is that radiation efficiently disrupts the cyclic structure of constituents within naphthenic acids, neutral-izing their toxic effect and leaving the local environment clear for biological activity.“This method could potentially help the whole ecosystem recover more quickly because bacteria are the front line,” Weisner says. “Bacteria are both consumers and producers and are the primary producers in chemosynthesis, so they will influence the chemical environment, which allows other forms of life to establish.”

Chemical News Canada’s top stories from the chemical sciences and engineering sectors


Canada's top stories in the chemical sciences and engineering | Chemical News

Just as hydrocarbons ranked as perhaps the most influential family of complex molecules in the 20th century, DNA may well be on its way to claiming that title for the 21st. Since it was first characterized in the 1950s, this intricate double helix biopolymer has opened up new frontiers in the study of life on earth, including an unprecedented understanding of how our own bodies grow and develop.

But over the past few decades, chemists have employed the powerful binding char-acteristics of DNA for another purpose: as scaffolding for all manner of novel structures that could be used to create nanoscale devices. In the years to come, these devices may analyze proteins, direct enzyme activity or capture light. Hanadi Sleiman, who holds the Canada Research Chair in DNA Nanoscience at McGill University, has prepared her own elegant examples of such structures. Sleiman is quick to add, however, that so far their practical value has generally remained limited by how expensive and time-consuming they are to produce.

For just that reason, Sleiman and graduate student Tom Edwardson have been exploring a way to convert the role of DNA from that of an essential scaf-fold to something more akin to a printing press. The DNA molecule would serve as a template, transferring its rich information content to gold nanoparticles that interact with it. “These particles will be just as smart as the DNA scaffold because they got the pattern from the DNA,” she says.

Sleiman is referring to the information content that is transferred from the DNA to the gold nanoparticle, an innovative process that promises to transform this type of manufacturing. In the rapidly growing field of nanostructure assembly, gold has become prized for the unique optical, electronic and chemical properties that it

Using DNA as a printing press to create nanostructures

BIOCHEMISTRY

can yield at extremely small scales. These effects are enhanced when nanoparticles are brought together in clusters or crystal assemblies, which might be made up of millions of nanoparticles. Corralling all these loose pieces is a major logistical chal-lenge, along with ensuring they move into the appropriate arrangement to carry out their intended function.

In a Nature Chemistry paper published earlier this year, Sleiman describes how she and her colleagues created site-specific addressability, which she dubs “sticky patches,” on a three-dimensional DNA structure, such as a cube, triangular or pentameric prism. When a gold particle interacts with these DNA prisms, the pattern DNA strand with sticky patches is “printed” on it. The DNA prism can then be reused. The resulting gold particles

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Molecular patterns are transferred to gold particles via a DNA-derived template.

are very different from their symmetrical predecessors. They can assemble together autonomously into well-defined structures like a “cat’s paw” without needing external help from a DNA scaffold. “As a result of conducting electrons being confined in a gold nanoparticle, there are new proper-ties that occur,” Sleiman says. “Even more interesting are properties that come from coupling two or three particles together.”

Above all, Sleiman adds, once the hard work of designing the template is complete, large numbers of these intricate nanostructures could be readily manufac-tured. “You can imagine a factory where the DNA itself is the stamp, continuously transferring a pattern to different gold particles,” she says. “The same structure could be used to make thousands and thousands of gold particles.”



CARBON CAPTURE

Given the widespread desire to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, many observers expect carbon capture technology to become as common as nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulphur oxide (SOx) smoke-stack scrubbers have already become on large industrial sites.

Nevertheless, there is no ready equivalent of such scrubbers to remove CO2 from flue gas. Although the molecular sieves offered by zeolites have a demonstrated ability to remove trace gases, including CO2, they do not function well under humid conditions, such as those found in a post-combustion stream. Meanwhile, metal organic frameworks (MOFs) offer uniform micropores, high surface areas and greater stability but they also rapidly decompose in the presence of water. “You have to repeat the gas adsorption and desorption process millions of times over the life of a typical power plant, which is 30 to 50 years,” says University of Ottawa chemistry professor Tom Woo. “So these materials have to be very stable and that’s been the problem with MOFs for these applications.”

Woo recently co-authored a paper in Science Advances intro-ducing a nickel-pyrite MOF that could fill this tall order. The single-ligand, ultra-microporous material was shown to have a

Post-combustion scrubbers efficient at CO2 capture high CO2 saturation capacity and good selectivity for this gas at high pressure, as well as remaining hydrolytically stable.

Woo points out that these properties are not best suited for post-combustion capture of CO2 but are instead ideal for pre-combustion CO2 capture, which promises to be more efficient. This approach calls for an entirely different plant design, one which creates a high-pressure stream of CO2 and hydrogen before any fuel is consumed. The former can be absorbed by the MOF and released for storage, while the latter can be burned without releasing any carbon.

Woo originally modelled the behaviour of the new MOF in his Ottawa laboratory, while colleagues in India and Europe were able to test a physical sample to confirm his predictions. The publica-tion has already attracted interest from companies that could make use of this material, including an operator of coal-fired generating stations and a firm that collects methane from landfills.

Woo cautions that the search for sequestration sorbants is still under way but this latest discovery provides an important step towards materials that can be used in practice. “If you can find a high-performing material that’s ultra-stable, then it would be amongst the most cost-effective ways to capture carbon,” he says.

FUNDAMENTALS

Unlocking the mystery of chain-branching mechanisms Many organic reactions, including industrially significant reac-tions in biomass processing and petroleum refining, involve chemical intermediates known as carbocations, which feature positively charged carbon atoms. Carbocations often quickly rearrange before proceeding with a reaction and some rearrange-ments are slower than others. The slower pace of chain-branching rearrangements has allowed industrial control of the degree of branching of alkanes, an important factor in the quality of the final product, such as the octane rating of a fuel.

As important as the outcome may be, just why this complex molecular interplay slows down at a key juncture is a question that has eluded researchers for decades. “What people really didn’t understand was how it rearranged — the actual steps in the rearrangement,” says University of Regina theoretical chemistry professor Allan East. He began to investigate these steps more formally about six years ago, eventually unravelling the details of carbocation dynamics.

With the help of three students, East performed 80 simula-tions of hexyl ion behaviour, optimized 70 transition states for

the various elementary steps and generated a complete map of hexyl ion rearrangement. A key focus point was the structure of protonated cyclopropanes (PCP+), which have traditionally been regarded as crucial intermediates in these reactions. Earlier work had concluded that these unstable forms feature protonation on the corner or edge of a ring structure but this research instead pointed to a meso or hybrid state. It turns out that particular meso-PCP+ structures involving primary carbocations are what slow down the chain-branching steps.

The findings were published earlier this year in the Journal of Organic Chemistry, including rearrangement step classifications and a new table listing the energy barrier heights for various steps. East acknowledges that the patience to run and watch many simulations proved vital to learning the mechanism, which is why the underpin-nings of the process had remained unanswered for so long. But he adds that the resulting insights come with some tempting potential. “Now that we know this reaction, we can work towards designing new catalysts that might be able to go in there and help it go faster with less energy cost, while maintaining product control,” East says.



When it comes to technological alternatives designed to wean our economy off carbon-based energy sources, metal fuels definitely count among the underdogs. True, their venerable history dates back to when the Chinese first started to fool around with fireworks more than 1,000 years ago and they are a good choice for heavy lifting, as evidenced by the aluminized solid rocket boosters that regularly help send satellites and space shuttles into orbit. Nevertheless, they remain a notoriously expensive and cumbersome way of doing business and few would consider them a serious option for conventional commercial or even personal transportation.

Jeff Bergthorson is eager to change this perception. The McGill University mechan-ical engineering professor has assembled a research group dedicated to exploring the prospects of using metal fuels as an entirely carbon-free way of powering the combus-tion engines that sustain so much of our civilization. “Metals pack a lot of punch,” Bergthorson says. “They have a lot of energy per unit mass and specifically a lot of energy per unit volume.”

In contrast to other alternative fuels like hydrogen, the infrastructure for extracting and handling metals is largely established. Similar to fossil fuels, says Bergthorson, metals remain stable for extended periods, making them easy to store and transport. Above all, while they might be hard to refine the first time around, they combust into convenient, cost-effective oxides that are readily captured after use. “The key idea is that if you’re recycling it and that metal is going around and around the cycle, then you’re not paying for the metal,” Bergthorson says. “You’re renting the use of it and what you’re really paying for is the energy that’s stored inside.” If that energy comes from a carbon-free source, such as nuclear, solar or wind generation, then metal fuels begin to look like the lynchpin of a carbon-free economy.

Currently such processes are anything but carbon free, as when iron oxide is recycled

To cut back on carbon-based fuels, get heavy on the metal

into iron by burning it with coal in a blast furnace. Bergthorson is envisioning a new strategy that would take carbon out of the picture, instead reducing the iron oxide with hydrogen or by subjecting it to chemical looping combustion in a circulating fluid-ized bed. While there are no commercial systems for doing so, his group is already experimenting with approaches that could complete this step and link it with existing facilities, such as a coal-fired power plant adapted to burn metals.

Bergthorson and his colleagues described their work in a paper that appeared last December in Applied Energy but

acknowledges that this concept catches many people off guard, especially if they are unfamiliar with closed-cycle power plants such as Stirling engines that could function indefinitely on a limited supply of metal fuel. Such engines have 18th-century origins of modern mechanization and Bergthorson insists that it is time to revisit these technological roots. “What we’re really talking about is a reimagining of the steam locomotives of the industrial revolu-tion,” he says. “It’s a recyclable ‘coal’ that you burn to generate heat and use that heat to generate steam and use the steam to generate power.”

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McGill University’s Jeffrey Bergthorson wears heavy goggles to shield himself from the 3,000 C flame of burning aluminum, a metal he is studying as a carbon-free fuel source.

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Don Weaver, a chemist and director of the Krembil Research Inst i tute within Toronto’s University Health Network, recently found occasion to bring science to the public within the humble confines of a subway car full of morning commuters. Weaver overheard a discussion three women were having about a newspaper story describing how constituents of maple syrup could prevent Alzheimer’s disease, theorized to be caused by the accumulation of abnor-mally folded amyloid beta protein in the brains of patients. When Weaver real-ized that they were associating this effect with popular brands of “table syrup,” he couldn’t resist interrupting to point out that such products consist of little more than flavoured corn sugar and would have none of these medicinal qualities. “And how would you know that?” they queried. “I pointed at the paper and said, ‘Because that’s me in there.’ ”

Only a few days earlier, Weaver had been in California presenting the maple

Tapping into the hidden chemistry of maple syrup

syrup findings at an American Chemical Society meeting. The discovery struck a chord among Canadian observers but he confesses that it was the result of a much broader research agenda that had begun several years earlier. “We have been endeavouring to come up with small molecules that bind to either beta amyloid or tau peptide,” he says, refer-ring to the key cellular proteins linked to Alzheimer’s. After conducting high-throughput screening with some standard compound libraries, Weaver and his colleagues turned to botanicals such as apples and chocolate.

Weaver arbitrarily added components of maple syrup to the list of novel poly-phenols being investigated. It turned out that the polyphenol compounds within the maple syrup may have a potent ability to interfere with protein misfolding. He outlined that result as co-author of a paper that appeared in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences earlier this year. “Whether it has the ability to cross

the blood-brain barrier is a completely different question,” he says, acknowl-edging that this feature might ultimately limit the effectiveness of the agent as a potential drug. That aspect is being explored by American researchers who are moving from in vitro studies to analyses using roundworms as a model organism.

Meanwhile, Weaver found it no less interesting that these properties are not found in maple sap but only in the processed syrup. “These polyphenols are actually made during the boiling process,” he says. “That heat is enough to facilitate some interesting chemistry in the sap and causes the biosynthesis.”

Of course, most Canadians need little convincing to consume maple syrup and Weaver points out that in this respect his efforts were actually counterproductive. The ethyl acetate extraction to isolate the poly-phenols turned our national topping from an alluring viscous treat into a nondescript brown powder. “It was a horrible thing to do to maple syrup,” he says.

BIOCHEMISTRY

Toronto chemist Don Weaver sweetened maple syrup’s appeal, discovering how it might fight the molecular symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease.

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As the environmental impact of climate change becomes more apparent , marine researchers like the University of British Columbia ’s Philippe Tortell and Roger Francois are establishing a baseline of data to assess the impact on Arctic Ocean waters.

Under pressure


Chemistry | Ocean Geochemistry

has grown significantly, says Philippe Tortell, a University of British Columbia Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences professor and researcher of marine biogeochemical cycles. Twenty years ago, there was little understanding of the effect of carbon dioxide (CO2) — a major greenhouse gas (GHG) created by the burning of fossil fuels — on the oceans. Today, Tortell is part of a group of scientists from 35 nations who are collaborating under the umbrella of GEOTRACES, an interna-tional research program seeking greater understanding of the biogeochemical cycles in and large-scale distribution of trace elements and their isotopes in all the world’s major ocean basins.

Although considerable research has been undertaken since 1996, there is still much for us to learn about the ocean’s geochem-ical makeup, as well as the effect of climate and climate active gases on seawater — due

in no small part to the complexity of the system. Key questions prevail: when it comes to the role and importance of trace elements and isotopes in the ocean, what is normal, what is anthropogenic and how will changes affect global weather patterns, water temperatures and chemical specia-tion in the long term?

In an effort to make sense of this Arctic enigma, Tortell and a team of about 40 researchers, including UBC marine geochemist Roger Francois, the Canada Research Chair in Marine Geochemistry for Global Climate Change, spent six weeks last summer on the Canadian Coast Guard research ship CCGS Amundsen, a $5 million expedition to accumulate data through sampling activities and experimen-tation. The goal was to establish baseline information on the chemical, biological and physical makeup of Arctic waters. Such information, says Tortell, is vital to understanding and ultimately predicting

n the mid-1990s , the Inte r -governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released an in-depth report on how human activity was affecting the global climate system. An office of the United Nations Environment Programme and the

World Meteorological Organization, the IPCC evaluates scientific data related to climate change for world governments as well as UN agencies. The report, which stretched to more than 2,000 pages, included a concise summation. Due to natural variability and uncertainties, it stated, the ability of scientists to quan-tify human impact on climate change was limited. “Nevertheless, the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discern-ible human influence on global climate,” the report read.

Since then, while the overall conclu-sion has not changed, the amount of published research on the subject

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A membrane inlet mass spectrometer on board the research vessel the CCGS Amundsen is used to measure the CO2, O2 and DMS levels in Arctic seawater.



of roughly one half of anthropogenic CO2 emissions by the oceans and land.”

Such dramatic changes, Tortell says, amount to “the largest experiment that human kind has ever done — and we happen to be conducting it on our own planet. We’re trying hard to think how this experiment will pan out and how it will influence our societies and the way we live. We need a crystal ball to look into the future and say, ‘What will the earth’s climate system look like in 10 years, 50 years, 100 years?’ We don’t really have a very good answer,” says Tortell, whose work is supported in part by the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies in Vancouver.

Tortell’s research embraces the complex movement of water masses from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans as well as melting glacier waters that merge, swirl and float on the surface in the Arctic along horizontal and vertical gradients, carrying varying amounts of chemicals like salts. These different water masses have distinct chemical signatures due to their tempera-ture and salt content, acting as a marker for how seawater is circulating around the globe, says Tortell.

Oxygen (O2) is another important marker of ocean changes. O2 indicates biological activity such as the presence of microscopic plants in the ocean, which are mostly single-cell phytoplankton, Tortell adds.

The photosynthesis of phytoplankton is the foundation of the marine food web and one of the pillars of ocean health. One of the key questions is how this mechanism will be affected by an increase in atmospheric CO2. From a biochemical perspective, increasing CO2 in the ocean should stimulate phytoplankton photo-synthesis, possibly a positive outcome, says Tortell. However, this boost in ecosystem productivity could backfire. The bumper crop of new phytoplankton will eventually die, resulting in a rain of organic particles falling down into deeper waters. This material is digested by other organisms that consume organic matter and O2. An explosion in their numbers

Roger Francois, Canada Research Chair in Ma-

rine Geochemistry for Global Climate Change.

the effect of increasing global temperatures and four key climate active gases: CO2, dimethylsulfide (DMS), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O), which impact not only marine ecosystems but also regu-late the radiative balance of the planet by absorbing energy from the sun or reflecting it back into space. “If we want to under-stand how the Arctic Ocean functions as a system, what its current state is now, how it may change in the future, we need ship-based observations across the whole Arctic,” says Tortell. The building of such research data, as part of the GEOTRACES collaboration, “is critical,” Tortell adds. “We have an unprecedented level of detail in the distribution of all these chemicals. This gives us powerful information about how the system works and how it may evolve in the future.”

At the root of such concerns is the concentration of atmospheric CO2, which has been increasing since the industrial revolution. The level of CO2 in the atmo-sphere is higher, in fact, than at any time in the past 700,000 years, says Tortell. This figure is derived from studies of ancient air bubbles that are trapped in ice. During the ice ages, CO2 levels were around 200 parts per million (ppm) and have since risen beyond 400 ppm. This rise corresponds to the increase in fossil fuel emissions. Data from the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US indicates that 2016 is set to be another record-breaking year. The 10 warmest years since 1880 have all occurred since 2000.

The ocean plays a vital role in this anthropogenic shift, as it absorbs CO2, acting as a natural regulator and ulti-mately having a powerful influence on climate. A 2015 journal article, titled “Rapid anthropogenic changes in CO2 and pH in the Atlantic Ocean 2003-2014” in Global Biogeochemical Cycles, notes that the rise to 397 ppm of CO2 from 355 ppm in 1989, is causing “an increase in the global temperature which is associated with adverse climate change effects. The rise is modulated as a result of the uptake

University of British Columbia ocean researcher Philippe Tortell.

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DMS is gassed into the atmosphere, where it oxidizes, forming sulphate aero-sols that create condensation nuclei for cloud formation. Thus DMS is a factor in the radiative balance of the planet, as over-cast skies reflect sunlight back into space. Clearly an important cog in the planet’s ecosystem, Tortell is researching how DMS is influenced by — as well as influ-ences — climate change. At this moment, however, it is questions rather than answers that loom large. “How does DMS change with melting ice? How does it change with warming oceans or with changes in phyto-plankton abundance and composition? I think that’s where we’re at for the moment with DMS.”

Such queries may be answered soon. The data that Tortell and the GEOTRACES compile will be fed into mathematical computer models incor-porating the physical, chemical and biological processes of the Arctic to ulti-mately provide accurate predictions of the effects of climate change.

Francois was chief scientist, alongside Tortell, during last summer’s excursion to the Arctic. His research interests lie more with oceanic chemical minutiae, specifi-cally the radioactive isotopes thorium-230 (230Th) and protactinium-231 (231Pa). Both are products of the radioactive decay of uranium, which is naturally found in seawater at a level of around three parts per billion. These isotopes settle in sediments, leaving behind a record of their distribu-tion in time and can also be measured in samples taken from different depths of the water column. Their distribution in the water column also allows Francois to trace the path of deep-water currents in the Arctic, which are driven not by wind but water density, which changes in accor-dance with temperature and salinity. They are a crucial means by which life-giving nutrients and contaminants are circu-lated in the deep. Knowing the trajectory and velocity of these currents would be particularly crucial to prepare for a worse-case scenario, such as an oil spill, if drilling

due to that what Tortell calls “hydro-graphic frontal zones,” which are sharp or abrupt transitions in water salinity or temperature. These are associated with areas where there is localized melting of sea water ice or river mouths. Melting glacier ice is a factor in the changing ocean ecosystem and NASA reports that global ice surfaces have been shrinking by 13.4 percent every decade since 1980, causing an annual 3.4 millimetre rise in sea levels.

Ocean acidification



could trigger an O2 deficit, which is not only harmful to sea creatures but could lead to the formation of GHGs N2O and CH4, Tortell says. (N2O also destroys stratospheric ozone.)

Tortell is studying another organic compound called DMS, which is part of the chemical mixture that is partly responsible for the ocean’s unmistak-able, intoxicating scent. DMS is released by tiny phytoplankton. Studies show varying amounts of DMS in the Arctic,

O ne great illustration of the com-plex and sometimes contradic-tory nature of biogeochemical

cycles in the ocean has to do with the interplay of two carbon sinks. The first occurs when photosynthetic plankton take up CO2 to build their biomass; the other is when marine organisms like cor-als, molluscs and some phytoplankton build and maintain shells and exoskel-etons using carbonate ions dissolved in the water.

Both mechanisms would seem to re-move atmospheric CO2 and store it as non-gaseous chemical species. How-ever, according to University of British Columbia Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences marine re-searcher Philippe Tortell, it’s more com-plicated than that. “What these calcium carbonate-producing organisms do is they actually remove alkalinity from the water, because they take carbon-ate ions and react them with calcium to form a solid,” Tortell says. This is impor-tant because highly alkaline waters, for complicated chemical reasons, actually have a higher capacity to trap atmo-spheric CO2 into bicarbonate ions than acidic ones.

Tortell gives the example of a large bloom of Emiliania huxleyi, a type of photosynthetic plankton in the group known as coccolithophores. Because they are both photosynthetic and shell-producing, one would think that a large

bloom of these organisms would draw down lots of CO2 from the atmosphere. In fact, because they alter the alkalinity of the water they live in, “big blooms of E. huxleyi can actually increase the partial pressure of CO2 at the surface of the water because of the removal of all this alkalinity.”

Such complex interactions show that the results of climate change will not be easy to either track or predict and underline the importance of data-gathering missions like that conducted by Tortell and his colleagues last sum-mer aboard the Canadian Coast Guard research ship the CCGS Amundsen.

The calcareous plankter Emiliania huxleyi forms large blooms in seawater.

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Additives in plastics and microplastics affect sea creatures

Peter Ross, senior scientist with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Pollution Research Program.

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A n estimated 700,000 marine ani-mals die each year from plastic garbage, either by becoming en-

tangled in lost fishing nets and rope or by ingesting it, says Peter Ross, the founding director and senior scientist with the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Pollution Research Program. Even when such plastics degrade into micro-plastics — defined as anything smaller than five millimetres — they continue to cause havoc in the marine ecosys-tem. This is because the additives in plastics like bisphenol-A (BPA), phthal-ates, which make plastics flexible, and organobromine compounds like poly-brominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs), which are used as flame retardants, can leach from microplastics into organ-isms when ingested. These chemicals “are endocrine disrupting compounds,” Ross says.

Microplastics are consumed by fish and invertebrates like molluscs, corals and zooplankton, which mis-take them for food. While it is difficult to assess the impact of microplastics and BPA, phthalates and PBDEs in field studies, deleterious effects have

been noted under controlled labora-tory testing, Ross says. These include estrogenic outcomes such as the feminization of male fish, neurological abnormalities and weakened immune systems. Young marine mammals and organisms are especially suscepti-ble, as their endocrine and hormonal systems are developing, says Ross, whose team has found high rates of plastic — 9,200 particles of plastic per cubic metre — off British Colum-bia’s West Coast.

Ross says that one key way to mitigate the problem is to support the development of low-chemical person-al-care products. For example, retail items like facial scrubs and tooth-paste containing microbeads should be banned, as these tiny particles of-ten pass straight through waste treat-ment systems into the environment. As well, the international community must pressure as well as assist coun-tries — the main culprits being Asian nations — to cease chucking plastic waste into ocean waters. “Plastic pol-lution in the ocean is a global prob-lem,” Ross says.

for crude in the Arctic were to go ahead, Francois says.

Francois began monitoring the radio-isotopes 230Th and 231Pa in 2007. Using this baseline, he has been able to use changes in the levels of 230Th and 231Pa to monitor how deep-water currents are evolving as the climate changes. “The melting of the sea ice in summer changes the way the surface water mixes and will change the supply of nutrients to surface water, thus changing the productivity in this part of the ocean,” says Francois, who collects seawater and analyzes its 230Th and 231Pa levels using mass spectrometry back at his UBC lab.

In addition to melting more sea ice, a general increase in global tempera-tures boosts the surface temperature of the ocean. This increases stratification: warm water on top of cold water makes it more difficult for the two to mix verti-cally, which causes the supply of nutrients to decrease, adding to what Francois calls expanded oligotrophic zones, areas with decreased biogenic activity. Since the phytoplankton is a main consumer of CO2, this in turn affects the ocean’s ability to absorb this greenhouse gas.

Melting glaciers in the Arctic, especially from the Greenland ice sheet, adds fresh water to the North Atlantic. This could reduce the rate of deep-water formation — one of the main mechanisms redistributing solar heat from the tropical regions to high northern latitudes. While such a slowdown could temporarily mitigate global warming in the affluent regions of the north, it would exacerbate warming in other regions. It would also change precipitation patterns in tropical regions, leading either to more drought or more flooding, Francois says.

Higher temperatures — a direct result of greenhouse gases — are pushing the climate system possibly to the “point of no return,” says Francois. “It may initially change little by little by little — then abruptly and non-reversibly. What the consequences for human society will be is anyone’s guess.”

Chemical Engineering | Asteroid Mining


As the possibility of mining asteroids comes closer to reality , it turns out that the most precious substance on space rocks may not be metal like rhodium and platinum but water. The big challenge , of course, is developing the technology to exploit such riches.

In 2012, Canadian rover prototype Artemis Jr. tested out moon-drilling techniques in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

By Elizabeth Howell



materials, fuel, or even food. While it might look ambitious to consider chasing down one of these bodies in order to mine it, the economics of such a mission could well make sense if it means skirting the astronomical costs of bringing these same commodities from Earth.

NASA has ambitious plans for space mining. The agency is planning an asteroid sample return mission later this year called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, or OSIRIS-REx. It will retrieve what is expected to be a carbon-rich mineral sample from the asteroid Bennu, which orbits around the sun but passes close to the Earth — only 448,794 kilometres away — every six years. Little altered over time, the asteroid, which is 580 metres in diameter, is expected to provide a snapshot of our solar system’s formation. OSIRIS-REx will use a Canadian-made laser altimeter to map the asteroid surface, allowing scientists to select an area where the spacecraft arm can collect a surface sample. The altimeter was built by MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates, which also made the space shuttle remote manipulator system called the Canadarm. (OSIRIS-REx will return to Earth by 2023.)

Since 2012, two American startup space companies: Planetary Resources (PR) and Deep Space Industries (DSI), announced plans to mine asteroids. According to PR CEO Chris Lewicki, the goal would be to serve space missions. The mass of some asteroids can be made up of as much as 20 percent water ice, bound up in substances such as clay. This water can be split into hydrogen and oxygen, both useful elements in space travel. Hydrogen can be reacted with oxygen to fuel spacecraft, while oxygen also keeps astronauts alive. In this way, asteroids could serve as fuelling stations for travellers on their way to Mars.

The fuelling station concept is one of two business cases PR and DSI have attached to the concept of space mining. The companies also envision a mining venture meeting the material needs of a permanent space colony

hen scientists announced a few years ago that ice had been found on the moon, most of us — Canadians in particular —

would likely have envisioned something you could skate on. Lunar ice, however, contains not just the usual hydrogen and oxygen but also some serious contaminants such as mercury and chlorine. Nor would it necessarily resemble the smooth shiny stuff found in a hockey rink; instead, it should be a kind of powder. Nevertheless, any such form of water could prove to be nothing less than pure treasure to future colonists, a local resource that could help to make a moon base self-sustaining. And, in a move that should please this coun-try’s ice-loving instincts, the first drill to be sunk into that resource is expected to be Canadian.

The drill is being prepared for a lunar rover called Resource Prospector, which the United States’ civilian space agency NASA is planning to launch in 2020. This mission will be among the first tangible attempts at practical space mining, a field that could help us overcome the leading problem in space exploration — getting there.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to under-stand that getting things into outer space is difficult. Even the most modest of rocket launches is a dramatic testimony to the daunting amount of energy that is required to escape our planet’s gravitational pull. The complexity, risk and sheer expense associ-ated with such displays also underscore the outrageous price tag for any kind of space-related venture. When you have to bring every available resource with you, costs mount dramatically, if not exponentially.

For just that reason, people who are serious about setting up shop in outer space are starting to look more closely at resources that might be more easily obtained. For example, the various aster-oids wandering throughout our solar system may well serve as a useful source of basic commodities like water and key minerals, which could be used to produce building

In 2012, Canadian rover prototype Artemis Jr. tested out moon-drilling techniques in Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

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accidents that might dampen the enthu-siasm of potential investors. Nevertheless, company officials maintain their optimism. “We have considerable investment from government and private investors,” says Meagan Crawford, the vice-president of strategic communications at DSI. “It’s a little longer-term than most businesses; space companies can take a while. But it’s in line with space companies that have similarly grand plans,” Crawford says.

DSI and PR intend to do much of their initial prospecting from the ground, or with modest Earth-orbiting telescopes, in order to find “hydrated” asteroids that might be within striking distance for spacecraft that could go there for a closer look. While most of our solar system’s asteroids go around the sun in an orbit between that of Mars and Jupiter, some occasionally come much closer to us and present the opportunity for this kind of survey.

Once we land a spacecraft on an asteroid, the next challenge will be liber-ating water from an asteroid’s regolith, the loose material that surrounds its rocky core. According to Chris Herd, a professor at the University of Alberta’s Earth and Atmospheric Science department who

specializes in meteorites, this process is bound to require a lot of energy since any water is likely to be incorporated in clay and will have to be boiled out. Herd has already undertaken experiments proving that this is possible. His team has estab-lished that the temperature needed to break water free would be between 300 C and 500 C. “You break the bonds in the clays to liberate the water and then you have to capture it,” Herd says.

On an airless body with next to no gravity, this process must be carefully managed to make sure the water does not simply float away. On Earth, thermoanalyt-ical hardware, such as differential scanning calorimeters, are used to keep such an activity on track; a space-borne version of such equipment would have to be far more lightweight and use lubricants that would stay supple in very low temperatures.

Nor is this the only exotic hardware that is in the works for space mining. Two Canadian companies, Neptec and Deltion Innovations, are working out the logistics of developing a drill for getting water out of non-terrestrial surfaces. Their initial work is looking at the moon, where scien-tists have already identified pockets of

Deep Space Industries (above) and Planetary Resources are two startup companies hoping to turn a profit in space mining by the 2030s.

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located in low Earth orbit, about the same height as the International Space Station (ISS). Both proposals present significant challenges. In order to create a mining infra-structure in space, bigger space stations that launch astronauts more frequently must be constructed. Science fiction writers have long imagined such infrastructure, like the giant space stations found in 2001: A Space Odyssey or Star Trek, but no space agency or business today has the resources for this kind of construction. PR and DSI are betting that it will be done by a collaboration of govern-ment and businesses, including themselves. They point to the fact that the money currently being spent on the ISS is set to be reallocated after that project winds down in the mid-2020s.

In the meantime, DSI and PR are each creating multiple income streams through ventures such as patents and technology development, including new propulsion systems or conducting simulated asteroid mining experiments. These firms acknowl-edge that they are looking a long way ahead to any kind of profitability, which may come no sooner than the 2030s. That schedule could be pushed back even further by political or social events, as well as



water that could be usefully exploited by future colonists.

In 2012, NASA tested out a prototype Canadian lunar rover called Artemis Jr. on the barren volcanic surface of Mauna Kea, Hawaii. The rover, which was devel-oped by Neptec with Canadian Space Agency funding, features a drill designed by a team led by Dale Boucher, who in 2013 created his own company, Deltion Innovations Ltd., located in Capreol, near the iconic northern Ontario mining centre of Sudbury. Such tests continue to shed light on the hurdles facing any

space mining technology. “It’s a pretty challenging environment to be drilling in cryogenic conditions in the lunar pole,” says Brad Jones, Neptec’s program manager of the Artemis Jr. project. “The temperatures will be quite easily in the 40 Kelvin (-233 C) range, so not very far above absolute zero. Any machinery and mechanical parts in these environments have to be carefully designed to retain working tolerances that will operate at these low temperatures and yet be able to survive the rigours of the launch in [warm] temperatures that are common at

Cape Canaveral, Fla., or wherever it gets launched from.”

Our solar system contains millions of asteroids, each one a relic from an earlier, more chaotic time in history. Through sheer coincidence, they have avoided being gobbled up by planets or ejected far out into space by the gravity of these larger bodies. With the right technology and a little luck, their carefully preserved stores of water and precious metals could hold the key to allowing humanity to escape the surly bonds of earth and truly embrace an extraterrestrial future.

This wheel casting schematic shows how hot metal is pushed upwards into a die cast mould. The complex shape of the rim being cast makes it difficult to ensure that the metal will cool perfectly from the outside in, leaving no isolated spots that might form defects.

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Our early solar system was full of chaotic moments as space rocks collided with one other to create planets and untold millions of asteroids.

Business | Materials Synthesis

By Tim Lougheed

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Renowned organic chemist Michael Organ is the new director of The University of Ottawa’s Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation.

Professor Michael Organ in the York University laboratory where he has explored the use of microwave radiation in flow chemistry, one of his many materials synthesis pursuits.

THE FARMER IN THE LAB



Chemistry professor Michael Organ has taken on some tough puzzles in organic chemistry and added to the roster of industrial

tools for synthesizing valuable materials. Over the past decade, as a member

of York University’s Department of Chemistry, Organ and his team developed one of the world’s most widely used systems for palladium-mediated cross-coupling, pyridine-enhanced precatalyst prepara-tion stabilization and initiation (PEPPSI) and explored the concept of using micro-waves to promote capillary flow for organic synthesis. He also unravelled the workings of one of the most important chemical discoveries of the 20th century — the Negishi Reaction — and extended its capa-bilities to create entirely new possibilities for the 21st century. Most recently he was named director of the Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation (CCRI) at the University of Ottawa, where he will oversee one of the country’s major assemblies of catalytic expertise in pure chemistry, engi-neering and medicine. To top it off, Organ is also this year’s winner of the Canadian Society for Chemistry’s R. U. Lemieux Award, which celebrates distinguished contributions to organic chemistry.

In the face of such accomplishments, it is downright disarming to learn that Organ cleaves to a farmer’s practical outlook on the universe. He retains an unadorned desire to make things work as well and operationally simply as possible. This is no coincidence, for he grew up in the thriving southern Ontario agricultural belt between Guelph and Hamilton. In fact, he originally envi-sioned himself skipping higher education altogether and running the family farm, an option that he acknowledges still looks good to him on days in the office when he is swamped with grant applications or sorting out problems with scientific instru-ment vendors. “I have a simple view of life,” Organ says.“Real innovation comes at the grass roots.”

A central feature of Michael Organ's busy York University laboratory is the water intake used for various materials synthesis processes.

In his case, it sprang literally from those roots. It was a number of mentors, Organ recalls, who guided him toward scien-tific challenges that appealed to his rural perspective. In the 1980s, while working at the University of Guelph’s research station near the small town of Elora — “a job I got primarily because I already knew how to drive a tractor” — plant crop science professor Steve Bowley pointed him at a project that placed plastic bags over crop plants in order to measure their ethylene output. Botany professor Derek Bewley subsequently assigned him to study the accu-mulation of phytic acid in cereals and grains; the plants employ this saturated cyclic acid to store phosphorus and important metal cations. Later, chemistry professor Gordon Lange supervised Organ’s PhD, which exam-ined natural products and photochemistry, two areas he continues to actively pursue.

Organ credits each of these men with showing him the way from the farm field into the laboratory, where he has been busy ever since. Over the years he has assem-bled several laboratories from scratch and enhanced their potential, always with an eye toward the next step. Building up ambitious research enterprises can be straightforward, he notes, thanks to supporting federal and provincial agencies, which helped him outfit a lab with state-of-the-art tech-nology. Keeping those same enterprises going is another matter. “The big concern is figuring out what happens when your service contracts end,” Organ says, again bringing the farmer’s conservative perspective to the fore. “Too many well intentioned and otherwise competent undertakings fall apart because there is no practical plan in hand to sustain the infrastructure the day after the money runs out.”

For just that reason, Organ has regularly collaborated with industrial partners around the world who provide him with the direct and indirect support necessary to make sure that everyone keeps on working — above all on projects that will have some impact. He



does not draw the traditional line between pure and applied science, instead looking only to solve problems wherever they happen to crop up.

That attitude has led Organ to cele-brated breakthroughs such as his work in flow chemistry. Around 2003, Organ and his colleagues developed an approach to organic synthesis that employed micro-wave radiation to flash heat reagents as they flow through capillaries. The tech-nique continues to show promise in drug discovery and the analysis of natural prod-ucts, where it can accelerate progress by

reducing reaction times from days down to minutes or seconds.

Organ also started to examine cross-coupling reactions that make it possible to link organic groups and form complex molecules. Although these reactions have become a mainstay of materials synthesis, their application to certain sensitive mole-cules is limited by temperature or pressure requirements. Some reagents were shutting down the activity of widely used palladium catalysts, an observation that prompted Organ to take a closer look at its inner workings. “We weren’t the first people

who looked at heterocyclic carbenes as ligands,” he says, “but we and a number of other people started to look at them at a very fundamental level.”

With the help of some talented graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, that inquiry made a key distinction between the role of N-heterocyclic carbene (NHC) and phosphine (PH3), which many observers had thought were equivalent participants in the cross-coupling. “Phosphines never met a palladium or a late-transition metal that they didn’t like,” he says. “Carbenes don’t. People think that under the basic conditions

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you’ll de-protonate the salt, make the free carbene, it’ll jump on the metal and away it goes. What happens is that there are other things present, such as solvent, that the carbene can insert itself into and effectively kill itself.”

Organ solved this problem by pre-forming the NHC, which led to the creation of PEPPSI catalysts that he published in 2006 and patented as the centrepiece of a new business. Not only does this strategy link materials that would otherwise refuse to cross-couple, the method has been refined to function within a wider set of envi-ronmental parameters and can even be conducted on a standard bench top without the need for a glove box. “We can cross-couple together substrates now at room temperature and in some cases zero degrees that formerly required temperatures over 100 C,” says Organ, referring to a desire on the part of manufacturers to minimize heat-related damage to particular materials and to minimize energy consumption.

More recently, Organ’s desire to unravel the basic chemistry of cross-coupling led to a fresh take on the Nobel-prize winning research that jump-started this field in the 1970s. Known as Negishi cross-coupling, after Purdue University Professor Ei-ichi Negishi, this technique made it possible to link organic groups for an unprecedented array of complex molecules. The method transformed production in fields ranging from pharmaceutical manufacture to elec-tronics. But by the 1990s, Organ became aware of the need to evaluate a little more carefully the mechanism by which it works, based on some insightful observations made by his research team.

Organ continued to look for ways of optimizing the efficiency of the Negishi reaction, which resulted in a finding that the American Chemical Society dubbed one of the most notable synthetic chem-istry discoveries of 2014. In this case the improvement followed the addition of a metal halide salt (such as lithium bromide), which Organ concluded is always part

of the reaction but had been previously overlooked because of how the organozinc reactants were prepared.

Commercial zincs, Organ says, are prepared using the Rieke protocol that leads to the production of two equivalents of salt in the mixture. Since this constituent was not deleterious to the couplings it was simply ignored and its presence forgotten for decades. When Organ’s group prepared the zinc reagents using a different protocol that did not generate the salt byproduct, the coupling stopped. An in-depth investigation revealed that the salt leads to the forma-tion of zincates, which are essential for the Negishi coupling to occur at all with alkylz-incs. With the role of salts in cross-coupling revealed, their use can be formally manipu-lated to even greater effect.

Most of this work has been conducted at York University, where Organ has been a member of the chemistry depart-ment since 1997. Surrounded by dozens of chemical companies in the Greater Toronto Area, he admits that there is essentially none of the same commer-cial chemical backbone to be found in Ottawa. But for him, that is precisely the point. “What I’m looking to do is build up specialized industries there,” he says.

The foundation of these industries will be a sweeping set of facilities and people that were originally brought on board by Ottawa’s then vice-president of research, Howard Alper, FCIC, himself a formi-dable chemist who ushered in the CCRI in 2000. The organization includes 38 faculty members in chemistry, engineering and medicine and labs scattered around the university’s two main campuses.

Alper notes that the CCRI was built up over the years by a panoply of talented indi-viduals, including the late Keith Fagnou. “We are proud of uOttawa’s Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation, a leading global centre addressing significant issues in key areas of catalysis,” Alper says. “We have been fortunate to have had Abdel Sayari, FCIC, and Tom Baker as directors

and we now look forward to imaginative and bold leadership by Michael Organ.”

CCRI member Deryn Fogg, FCIC, echoes that sentiment and traces her own enthu-siasm to the first time she encountered the earthiness and frankness reflected in Organ’s rural background. “He was excited about the opportunities and has no time for ego and power games,” she recalls. “His vision addresses the challenge of sustainability while addressing a much bigger set of oppor-tunities for the centre and for the country. We’re in a very special position. We’re the largest catalysis centre in the country and we’re also a presence on the world stage.”

For his part, Organ is no less enthusi-astic about becoming part of what he calls the university’s “shining apple” — namely its chemistry department. Nor is he in any hurry to leave behind his operations at York U, where he still spends about half of his time sitting on committees and ensuring that various research programs continue apace. Organ estimates that it could take him a couple of years to make a full transi-tion to Ottawa, giving everyone enough time to adjust to his new role.

As always, Organ aims a critical eye toward what happens next, citing a list of major projects that he intends to roll out annually over the next seven years or so. Having worked closely with McMaster University over the past decade and a half on a high-throughput approach to the synthesis and screening of potential phar-maceutical compounds, Organ believes that he can build on that experience to bring the catalytic chemistry resources of the CCRI to bear on solving the biomedical problems being investigated by uOttawa’s Faculty of Medicine. He also intends to establish a sustainable manufacturing centre, along with building firms based on novel catalysis technologies.

Above all, though, like any good farmer, Organ is looking forward to nurturing a crop of new ideas he expects to emerge within the diverse population — from undergrads to emeritus professors — at the CCRI.

Deadline is July 4, 2016 for the 2017 selection . Submit your nominations and view the full terms of reference at www.cheminst.ca/awards

NOMINATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE 2017

AWARDS

Submit nominations for the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network Award (Individual) and the Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network Award (Organization )

The Canadian Green Chemistry and Engineering Network is a forum of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC).


Society News

Canadian Chemical News (ACCN) contributor Mark Lowey of Calgary is this year’s recipient of the annual Award of Journalism

Excellence in Engineering from Engineers Canada, the national organization repre-senting the country’s 280,000 professional engineers. The award celebrates journalists who incorporate a balanced perspective on

ACCN writer wins journalism award from Engineers Canada

how engineering impacts important issues, ranging from health and infrastructure to technology and economic prosperity. The award is one of nine that celebrates outstanding Canadian engineers for their contributions to the nation.

Lowey won for his article “Pipe Dream,” which ran in the May-June 2015 edition of ACCN. The article focused on assessing the risks and potential hazards of two proposed oil sands export pipelines from Alberta to the British Columbia coast —Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline and Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project — and the increase in ocean-going oil tanker traffic that would result. The story probed the possible impacts on the marine environment of a spill of diluted bitumen into the ocean, as well as the statistical probability of such a spill from both an engineering and chem-istry perspective.

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“I’m very pleased and honoured to see my work recognized by Engineers Canada,” says Lowey. “During my 35-year career, I have won several national awards for my journalism while working as a staff reporter on a large daily newspaper. But this is my first national award as a freelance writer, so it is especially gratifying.”

Lowey is the publisher and managing editor of EnviroLine, a business publica-tion for Western Canada’s environmental industry, and has been an ACCN freelancer for several years. His most recent contribu-tion to ACCN was “Risky Business,” about the possible environmental risks associated with liquified natural gas development in BC, which ran in the January-February 2016 edition.

The award will be presented at a cere-mony in Charlottetown on May 26. ACCN writers who have previously won this award are Anita Lahey and Tyler Irving.

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Society News

Things to know

Abstract submission for the 66th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference closes on June 13. The con-ference will be held Oct. 16–19 in Quebec City. Submit abstracts at www.csche2016.ca.

The Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE) awards two Chemical Engineering Local Sec-tion Scholarships annually to undergraduates in a chemi-cal engineering program at a Canadian university. The nomination deadline is May 2. Details at www.cheminst.ca/awards/student-awards.

The early bird registration and hotel deadline for the 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition is May 2. The conference will take place June 5-9 in Halifax. Details at www.csc2016.ca. The nomination deadline for the 2017 Chemical Institute of Canada and the Canadian Society for Chemistry awards is July 4. The awards recognize outstanding contri-butions to the chemical sciences and engineering. Details at www.cheminst.ca/awards.

June 1 is the deadline for submissions to the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering Student Chapter Merit Awards. Details at www.cheminst.ca/awards/stu-dent-awards.

The CSC Professional Development Track Career Discussion Panel and Workshop will take place on June 5-6 at the 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Halifax. The panel will discuss career paths and experiences, while the workshop will cover “Effective Communication in Science, Engineering Trades and Tech-nology (SETT) - How Scientists Communicate Successfully at Work.” Only 60 workshop spaces are available; sign up when registering for the conference. Learn more at www.csc2016.ca/yourcareer.

The CSC Speed Networking Evening will take place on June 7 at the 99th Canadian Chemistry Confer-ence and Exhibition in Halifax. This two-part event will provide students and early-career chemists with the op-portunity to learn what employers look for in prospective employees, practice their high-level communication skills and expand their professional networks. Learn more at www.csc2016.ca/yourcareer.

Edmonton local section serves career advice “on the rocks”

The Edmonton CIC Local Section started off 2016 by hosting two educational events for its members, focusing on careers in chemistry and the chemistry of scotch. In late January they held their first CIC Local Section Professional Development Session, which welcomed a sold-out audience of 70 young chem-ical scientists and local section members. Industrial speakers from organizations such as Optimal Science Consulting, TEC Edmonton, Wilson Analytical and multinational chemicals company INEOS discussed their experiences with industry and offered career advice to attendees. Recruitment personnel from Gilead were also on site to provide career insights to young chemical professionals.

The educational fun continued later in January, when a packed house of more than 90 lovers of chemistry, music, single malts and Scottish heritage came together for “Café CIC: A wee dram of chemistry, culture, and scotch.” Held on Robbie Burns weekend, the café was co-sponsored by the Edmonton local section and King’s University College chemistry and music departments. Attendees sampled scotches from the different whisky-producing regions of Scotland and immersed themselves in Scottish culture, which included a sampling of haggis and oat cakes. Chemists Peter Mahaffy, FCIC, of The King’s University and Dietmar Kennepohl, FCIC, of Athabasca University discussed the complex chemical fingerprints of single malts produced from different stills, malts and casks. Visit www.ciced-monton.org to learn more about future CIC Edmonton events.

The Chemical Education Fund (CEF), the registered charity of the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC), supports educa-tion in the fields of chemistry, chemical engineering, chemical technology and related disciplines. Each year, the CEF provides grants to student science conferences and symposia to assist with programming and prizes. Other grants provided this year supported chemistry shows, outreach programs, symposiums and more. Full details about the 2016 CEF grant recipients can be found at www.cheminst.ca/CEF. The CEF thanks the CIC members who donate annually. This generosity allows the CEF continue to sponsor an increasing number of science education programs each year.

CEF announces its 2016 grant recipients


Society News

GrapevineTop Canadian chemists were honoured at the an-nual Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) awards ceremony on Feb. 16 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. University of Toronto biochemist Shana Kelley and Edward H. Sargent, vice-dean of U of T’s Faculty of Sci-ence and Applied Engineering, received the Brock-house Canada Prize for Interdisciplinary Research in Science and Engineering. E. W. R. Steacie Me-morial Fellowships were presented to Curtis P. Berlinguette, University of British Columbia, and Zhongwei Chen, University of Waterloo. Yasser Gidi, McGill University won the NSERC Gilles Bras-sard Doctoral Prize for Interdisciplinary Research.

The Engineering Institute of Canada presented their 2016 awards in Ottawa on Mar. 12. CSChE members Heather MacLean, University of Toron-to and Jiujun Zhang, National Research Council, were inducted as EIC Fellows for their exceptional contributions to engineering in Canada

The Government of Canada announced 305 new Canada Research Chairs in February. Chemists and chemical engineers among them include: Zhibin Z. Ye, Laurentian University, Charles Haynes, University of British Columbia, Zachary M. Hudson, University of British Columbia, Mark J. MacLachlan, University of British Columbia, Jillian Buriak, University of Alberta, Dennis Hall, FCIC, University of Alberta, Tom R. Baker, University of Ottawa, Benoit Lessard, University of Ottawa, Ya-Huei (Cathy) Chin, University of Toronto; Sophie Rousseaux, University of To-ronto, Todd Hoare, McMaster University, Donald F. Weaver, FCIC, University of Toronto, Stephen Loeb, University of Windsor, Marc Amyot, Uni-versité de Montréal and Jean-Philippe Belleng-er, Université de Sherbrooke.

Alice Chen of Memorial University received the Canadian Society for Chemistry 1996 Conference and Exhibition Scholarship for 2015–2016, pre-sented by the Newfoundland and Labrador CIC Local Section.

Ping Shen, University of Alberta, received the Ca-nadian Society for Chemistry Prize in Chemistry, presented by the Edmonton CIC Local Section.

The CSCT is pleased to acknowledge the newest certified Chemical Technologists (cCT): Kather-ine Reid and Ali Dasmeh.

Andrew Dicks, University of Toronto, received a 3M National Teaching Fellowship Award. The award recognizes leadership in enhanc-ing post-secondary teaching excellence locally, nationally and often internationally as well as superlative undergraduate teaching, sustained over several years.

Volcano Conference reaches new heights with 25th anniversary

This year marked the 25th anniversary of the Volcano Conference, held annually in February at Washington’s Pack Forest. This unique conference marries bioorganic chemistry research with nature, bringing together more than 100 professors, students and postdocs from the Pacific Northwest. Since its inception in 1991, professors Stephen Withers, FCIC, of the University of British Columbia and Michael Gelb of the University of Washington have watched their confer-ence — born of a discussion at a Canadian Chemistry Conference in Victoria — grow and evolve with each passing year. The silver anniver-sary conference featured keynote speaker Jim Wells of the University of California at San Francisco, an afternoon of cross country skiing, snowboarding and sledding at Mount Rainier National Park, followed by a closing night bonfire celebration.

Science odyssey: a celebration of science and technology Science Odyssey, a celebra-tion of science and technology that evolved from National Science and Technology Week, takes place across Canada May 6-15. Science Odyssey, led by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), creates public awareness of Canadian achievements in science and technology, brings science to the streets, promotes engaging and inspiring experiences for Canadian youth and showcases science and technology in a fun way. The Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) is a partner of this celebra-tion. Many CIC Local Sections are taking part in the event particularly through Science Rendezvous. Visit science.gc.ca/nstw for a list of happen-ings taking place across the country.

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Society News

Save the date

May 5-7, 2016

30th Western Canadian Undergraduate Chemistry Conference (WCUCC)

Winnipeg, Man.

www.wcucc2016.ca

June 2–4, 2016

41st Annual Science Atlantic/CIC Chemistry Conference

Halifax, NS

June 5–9, 2016

99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition

Halifax, NS

www.csc2016.ca

July 10-15, 2016

27th Canadian Symposium on Theo-retical and Computational Chemistry

(CSTCC2016)

Regina, Sask.

www2.uregina.ca/cstcc2016

October 10-12, 2016

XXVIII Interamerican Congress of Chemical Engineering

Cuzco, Peru

www.ciiq.org

October 16–19, 2016

66th Canadian Chemical Engineering Conference

Quebec City, Que.

www.csche2016.ca

May 28 – June 1, 2017

100th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition

Toronto, Ont.

www.csc2017.ca

Is there an event that you think should appear in this section? Write to us at [email protected] and use the subject heading “Society News.”

In Memoriam The Chemical Institute of Canada wishes to extend its condolences to the families of Ákos Szakolcai, of Mississauga, Ont and Gordon H. Thomson, FCIC, of Caledon Village, Ont. Thomson was chair of the Chemical Institute of Canada from 1999 to 2000.

Inorganic Chemistry Division recognizes top-notch studentsThe Canadian Society for Chemistry’s Inorganic Chemistry Division announces its graduate and undergraduate award winners.

The 2015 Award for Undergraduate Research in Inorganic Chemistry (AURIC) was awarded to Jackson Knott from the University of Lethbridge. Hailing from Crowsnest Pass, Alta., Knott has worked on several projects in organometallic and coordination chemistry of the rare earth elements with his supervisor Paul Hayes and has industrial experience through a 12-month work term with NOVA Chemicals. Knott plans to continue in the field of organometallic chemistry and will be starting graduate work this May.

The Inorganic Chemistry Division also named winners of the 2015 and 2016 Awards for Graduate Research in Inorganic Chemistry (AGWIC). The 2015 winner is Marc-André Courtemanche from Université Laval. Courtemanche attained his PhD in 2015 under the supervision of Frédéric-Georges Fontaine, where he undertook research on metal-free strategies for carbon dioxide activation. Courtemanche is currently a postdoctoral researcher at MIT under the supervision of Kit Cummins.

The 2016 AGWIC recipient, Marcus Drover, is currently enrolled in the PhD program at the University of British Columbia. Working under supervisors Laurel Schafer and Jennifer Love, Drover’s doctoral research focuses on mechanistic studies of N,O-chelated late transition metal complexes. Award recipients will present their lectures at the upcoming 99th Canadian Chemistry Conference and Exhibition in Halifax.

CIC submits briefs to Ottawa On Feb. 19, the Chemical Institute of Canada (CIC) and its strategic partner the Canadian Consortium for Research (CCR) submitted pre-budget Briefs to the federal government recommending the following: • Increased funding to the tri-council programs;• Increased financial support for post-secondary students and postdoctoral fellows; • Investment in the development, maintenance and upgrading of Canada's science

and technology infrastructure.The budget tabled on March 22 detailed important investments in science and

technology, including increased support to the tri-council funding agencies, grant funding for post-secondary students, support for research infrastructure at post-secondary institutions and a significant investment into the research, development and demonstration of clean technologies. The CIC looks forward to working with Minister of Science Kristy Duncan in the coming year as she undertakes “a comprehensive review of all elements of federal support for fundamental science” and continues to advocate for increased tri-council funding and financial support for students and postdoctoral fellows. Details at www.cheminst.ca/budget-2016. Review the budget at www.budget.gc.ca.

Then and Now


Then and Now

Then and Now


Then and Now

W ithin the world of chem-istry, global company Johnson Matthey has roots as English and nearly as

royal as the British monarchy. The company was founded in the early

19th century by London gold assayer Percival Norton Johnson, who was also one of the founding members of the Royal Society of Chemistry, the oldest national chemical society in the world, created in 1841.

Johnson had shown early promise as a chemist with the 1812 publication in Philosophical Magazine of “Experiments which prove platina, when combined with gold and silver, to be soluble in nitric acid.” He showed that small quantities of plat-inum mixed with gold and silver in nitric acid cause pure gold to separate from the solution. Johnson also perfected a method of extracting palladium — part of the platinum group of metals — from gold to improve its colour.

In 1851, Johnson’s company adopted the name Johnson & Matthey when George

Matthey joined the business. Today, pared down to simply Johnson Matthey, it is regarded as one of the world’s leading specialty chemicals companies.

As can be seen in this 1960 Chemistry in Canada advertisement, Johnson Matthey & Mallory Limited’s Montreal branch manufactured and distributed platinum laboratory ware. A lustrous, malleable, silver-white metal, platinum is highly resis-tant to chemical- and temperature-based corrosion. It is also valuable and rela-tively rare; only a few hundred tonnes are produced annually.

This ad was preceded by a 1950s expansion of the company, which estab-lished new sales and production outlets around the globe. Two decades before that, Johnson Matthey capitalized on the discovery of vast platinum mineral deposits in the Rustenburg district of Transvaal, South Africa, patenting the only workable process for extraction and refining platinum group metals from local ores.

Today, South Africa accounts for about 80 percent of the world’s produc-tion. Another major source of platinum is Ontario’s Sudbury Basin, also known as the Sudbury Nickel Irruptive, which is the second-largest, as well as the oldest, impact crater on Earth. (Platinum is also abundant on the Moon and in meteorites.)

Today, platinum is still used in lab equipment but is perhaps best known for its catalytic properties. It is used in automotive catalytic converters and in proton exchange membrane fuel cells where it catalyses the reactions between hydrogen and oxygen. It is also important in dentistry equipment, electrical contacts and jewelry.

Johnson Matthey continues to thrive and expand, with operations in 30 coun-tries, including Canada. The company positions itself as a leader in clean air, clean water and low-carbon technologies as well as experts in the application and recycling of precious metals.

1960Chemistry in Canada


Chemfusion

T IME, usually a reliable source of information, got this story wrong. “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned

that products labeled ‘100% Parmesan’ might actually contain cheese substitutes like wood pulp.” Actually, the FDA did not issue any such warning. In 2012 it did send a letter to Castle Cheese, claiming the company’s grated Parmesan contained more cellulose than the two percent that is commonly allowed as an anti-clumping agent. There was no mention of wood pulp. Then, in 2016, Bloomberg News commis-sioned a study of grated Parmesan cheeses and found that some contained up to eight percent cellulose. “The Parmesan Cheese You Sprinkle on Your Penne Could Be Wood,” screamed the Bloomberg headline, setting the blogosphere on fire. The wood connection sprang from the imagination of an overeager headline writer. Yes, cellulose can come from wood pulp but it can also come from asparagus or any plant material. Its origin is irrelevant.

Cellulose is the most prevalent organic compound in the world. It is the basic structural material of the cell walls of

plants, making up some two to four percent by weight of all fruits and vegetables. The human body doesn’t care if the ingested cellulose originated in wood pulp or in an apple.

We cannot digest cellu-lose, meaning that, unlike ruminants such as cows, we cannot break it down into fundamental absorb-able components. For us, cellulose is a form of fibre, which is important for the health of our colon. Bran, widely regarded as “healthy” because of its fibre content,

contains about 35 percent cellulose. The increased bulk provided in the stomach and the intestines by cellulose has been associated with appetite suppression, which is why many diets recommend foods with a high fibre content. So finding cellulose in grated cheese is absolutely a non-issue in terms of any negative health effect. Indeed, you could eat pure cellu-lose and the only problem you might encounter is an increased frequency of bathroom visits.

Why do we find cellulose in some grated cheeses? Because it prevents the cheese particles from clumping and makes for easier pouring. But it isn’t right to add more cellulose than is allowed, especially if it is done to increase profits. Cellulose is cheaper than cheese and adding it as a filler is fraud as customers are not getting what they think they are getting.

A bigger issue, however, is that when people think they are buying real Parmesan, they may be getting some-thing else. Parmesan comes from the Parma region in Italy and cannot contain anything but unpasteurized milk that is less than 20 hours from cow to cheese,

By Joe Schwarcz

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rennet and salt. Rennet is the mixture of enzymes derived from the stomach of calves that turns milk into curds. If a cow is ill and requires treatment with antibiotics, its milk cannot be used. No hormones that increase milk production can be administered. Even the diet of the cows is regulated. No silage, which is fermented stored crops, is allowed.

How can you tell if you are getting authentic Parmesan cheese? Look for Parmigiano Reggiano on the label and printed on the rind. But in Canada and the United States there are all sorts of grated cheeses sold under the name Parmesan because, unlike Europe, it is not a protected name. There have been cases where Parmesan was actually found to be a mixture of cheeses like mozzarella, Swiss and cheddar — with a dose of cellulose thrown in. The US Department of Justice prosecuted Castle Cheese for the adultera-tion and misbranding of cheese products, driving the company into bankruptcy.

Again, this is not a health issue but people were being misled because they thought they were getting authentic Parmesan cheese when they were not. The imitations do not offer the same taste as Parmigiano Reggiano, which has the second highest concentration of glutamic acid after Roquefort. Glutamic acid and its salts provide a taste referred to as umami, familiar to people as the taste produced by MSG. Of course because in this case glutamic acid is naturally occurring, it doesn’t raise the ire of the anti-MSG crowd. Bottom line? I do not decide on the nature of my grated cheese based on whether it contains cellulose or not. I decide on taste. And Parmigiano Reggiano tastes better than the imitations. Furthermore you can use the rind in soup. Yum.

Joe Schwarcz is the director of McGill University ’s Office for Science and

Society. Read his blog at www.mcgill.ca/oss.

Cheesy Parmesan headlines mislead public

RECOGNIZE OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENTSNominate a deserving chemical scientist or engineer for the CIC and CSC 2017 Awards. View terms of reference and submit nominations at www.cheminst.ca/awards.

The 2017 selection deadline is July 4, 2016.

CIC AWARDS: CIC Award for Chemical Education • CIC Medal • Environment Division Research and Development Dima Award • Macromolecular Science and Engineering Award • Montréal Medal

CSC AWARDS: Alfred Bader Award • Award for Research Excellence in Materials Chemistry • Bernard Belleau Award • Clara Benson Award • E.W.R. Steacie Award • Fred Beamish Award • IntelliSyn Pharma Research Excellence Award • John C. Polanyi Award • Keith Fagnou Award • Keith Laidler Award • Maxxam Award • R. U. Lemieux Award • Rio Tinto Alcan Award • Strem Chemicals Award • Teva Canada Limited Lectureship Award • Tom Ziegler Award • W. A. E. McBryde Medal

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