Early Sunday, about 3 am in the morning, I got a phone call from my dear friend Prof. Mert Atilhan that the grant we applied for was awarded. This marks my first (substantial) grant as a principal investigator (PI). It's for $1,035,382 to be exact and the duration is 3 years. Thanks Qatar Foundation!
The abstract is as follows (from here):
"The aim of this proposed work is to create high surface area solid state materials that can be precisely defined at the atomic level in order to provide a high throughput basis for the optimization of CO2 capture, conversion and co-activation with methane.
This proposed work focuses on the design, production, characterization and testing of materials that potentially have a high capability of capturing carbon dioxide from natural gas precombustion feed and post combustion effluent gases. Conversion and coactivation with methane will also be sought in the scope of this proposal. First phase of our work is to design and synthesize the candidate materials. Second phase will contain testing for carbon dioxide capture performances and catalytic co-activation with methane. The sorbent catalysts that show promise will be advanced to the third phase where pilot scale tests will take place. Following groups will be investigated:
• Mesoporous materials with compositional and structural functionality for CO2 capture, conversion and coactivation
• Hydrotalcites
• Oxime based Metal Organic Frameworks (MOF)
• High surface area inorganic carbonates, borates and iodates
Upon completion of the material synthesis, Stucky and Yavuz will also carry out full characterization of the materials prior to CO2 capture capacity determination. Samples with high affinity to CO2 capture and conversion will be analyzed in detail at the Atilhan group’s “Magnetic Suspension Sorption Device” in Qatar."
Read more..
My first grant as a PI
Nano rust was on Science Channel
Discovery's Science Channel had our nano rust project covered in their "Nano water" episode along with MIT's Francesco Stellacci's nano sponges that soak up spills. Click the following link to view the video:http://science.discovery.com/videos/brink-package-nano-water.html
Read more..
International Congress on Production of Safe Water
I will be attending the International Congress on Production of Safe Water, January 21-23, 2009, Izmir, Turkey. My talk title is "Pollution Magnet: Nano Magnetite for Arsenic Removal from Drinking Water"
There will be well known scholars of arsenic research (such as Arup K. Sengupta, Lehigh University) and poster sessions that reflect current technology for battling arsenic contamination in water resources.
This conference is very timely and beneficial to the people of Turkey, and will help motivate scholarly activity as well as public consciousness.
Read more..
Academic Impact Index (AII)
From my nano blog, nanotella:
Hirsch index seems to be working better for senior or semi-senior professors. The untenured and yet to be graduated (e.g. grad students) are not easy to track in h-index. In other words, h-index is not that sensitive below 5.
Here's a suggestion for an academic impact index (AII):
Your AII = Total [(journal impact factor + times cited)x n]
n=1 if you are not the first, second or corresponding author
n=1.5 if you are the second author
n=2 if you are the first and/or corresponding author
For example, the 5th year chemistry graduate student Jack Sparrow has 3 journal papers (peer reviewed). His Chemistry of Materials paper has 4 citations, Advanced Materials has 11 and JACS (second author) has none because it's just come out.
His AII = (4.883 + 4)x2 + (8.191 + 11)x2 + (7.885 + 0)x1.5 = 67.976 = 68
So Mr. Sparrow's Academic Impact Index (AII) is 68.
Notes:
1. If there is no data for a journal's impact factor then put "0" for impact factor.
Advantages of this method:
1. Everything counts
2. The level of authorship matters (i.e. first, second or corresponding)
3. The journal you are publishing in is important
4. Any newly published papers have an immediate impact on your score
Read more..
Top 2 most cited articles in Chemistry of Materials are from Stucky and Colvin
Chemistry of Materials (2007 impact factor 4.883) announced their 20 most cited papers and the top two came from Galen D. Stucky (my post doc advisor) and Vicki L. Colvin (my phd advisor):
- Surfactant Control of Phases in the Synthesis of Mesoporous Silica-Based Materials
Huo, Q.; Margolese, D. I.; Stucky, G. D.
Chem. Mater.;(Article); 1996; 8(5);1147-1160. DOI: 10.1021/cm960137h - Single-Crystal Colloidal Multilayers of Controlled Thickness
Jiang, P.; Bertone, J. F.; Hwang, K. S.; Colvin, V. L.
Chem. Mater.;(Article); 1999; 11(8);2132-2140. DOI: 10.1021/cm990080+
Read more..
Nano Rust
My first book was recently published via VDM Verlag. Thanks to Gabriel Caruntu for hooking me up with them. If you're interested in buying please click here, it's only $116(!).
Here's the blurb from the back:
This work describes the first size dependent magneticseparation in nanoscale by using rust like iron oxide. Magnetite (Fe3O4) nanocrystals of high quality and uniform size (4 nm to 33 nm) were synthesized. Batch synthesis was shown to go up to 20 grams which is more than 10 times of a standard nanocrystal synthesis, without loosing the quality and monodispersity. Reactor design for mass (1 gram per hour) production of magnetite nanocrystals isreported for the first time. A green synthesis thatutilizes rust and edible oils was developed.
The cost of a kg of magnetite nanocrystals was brought down from $2600 to $22. Size dependency of magnetism was shown in nanoscale for the first time. Reversible aggregation theory was developed to explain the low field magnetic separation and solution behavior of magnetite nanocrystals. Arsenic was removed from drinking water with magnetite nanocrystals 200 times better than commercial adsorbents. Silica coating was successfully applied and magnetite - silica nanoshells were functionalized with amino groups. For the first time, silver was coated on the magnetite -silica nanoshells to produce triple multishells.
Read more..
Yenigun daily featured my comments on their frontpage
On the Arsenic crisis in Izmir's (Turkey) drinking water system, I urged the public to be calm and not worry much. The issue will be resolved in 4 months and the toxicity of the current levels will not surmount to the fatal level although the carcinogenic effect of Arsenic is still at large. Scientists still not sure about how much arsenic in water can trigger tumor formations and for this very reason I would be cautious when drinking water with high levels of arsenic.
And CNN Turk interviewed me over 7 pm prime time news about our "pollution magnet" study.
Read more..
