Tags: Materials Chemistry and Nanoscience Seminar


Chemical Recycling To Monomers

With the ever rising production of plastic globally, a renewed focus has been cast onto the end of life fate of these persisting products.1 Within this sphere, chemical recycling to monomers is a high interest area that focuses on the application of depolymerization to return plastics into reusable monomers in order to produce a truly circular plastic recycling economy.2 Within this field, the two main focuses are on either finding novel…


Poly- and Perfluoroalkyl Substances in Paper and Paperboard Food Packaging

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are synthetic chemicals commonly used in food contact paper and paperboard due to their unique ability to provide both moisture and oil/grease resistance. However, recently it is becoming evident that they resist degradation, contaminate water supplies, and are becoming environmental persistent.1 Some studies have shown long and short chain PFAS bioaccumulate in tissues and are linked to multiple health…


Cell-Derived Nanoparticles as Cancer Vaccines

Immune system protects our body from attacks by pathogens. Immune system can also accurately identify self and mutated peptides on cancer cells and amount an antitumor immune response.1 As a novel cancer treatment modality, cancer immunotherapy aims at training immune cells for antigen recognition or boosting antitumor immune response. Unlike conventional therapies, immunotherapy promises to eliminate both primary and distant tumors while…


BEYOND SURFACE Facilitates Electrocatalytic Reactions of Renewable Carbons

There has been growing interest to drive chemical reactions via the direct use of renewable electricity to address sustainability challenges. The success of the approach rests on the use of the right materials to efficiently catalyze electrochemical reactions. Thus, there have been intense efforts to engineer catalyst materials whose surface contains the desired active sites. Despite the success, there is still much room for improvement in the…


Unlocking the Power of Group 16 (and 17) in the Solid State

Solid-state materials chemistry focuses on metals and cationic substitutions, particularly those in oxide ceramics. Relative to oxides, chalcogenides and mixed anion systems have been relatively underexplored. The Macaluso Research Group aims to uncover the structural and electronic role of Groups 16 and 17 elements in solid-state materials. We employ laboratory X-ray diffraction, synchrotron and neutron scattering to elucidate local and average…


Crystal Growth from Exploratory Synthesis to Functional Device Fabrication

Single-crystalline materials play a crucial role in the modern semiconductor electronics industry and fundamental science. The ability to grow large single crystals with high purity and low concentration of defects allows us to build new types of devices such as high-resolution semiconductor radiation detectors. Another important application of crystals is fundamental research, where crystal growth enables rapid screening of phase diagrams,…


X-ray Induced Photodynamic Therapy with CsI(Na)@MgO Nanoparticles and 5-Aminolevulinic Acid for Cancer Treatment

X-ray-induced photodynamic therapy (X-PDT) holds the potential to overcome the shallow tissue penetration issue associated with conventional photodynamic therapy (PDT). To this end, complex and sometimes toxic scintillator-photosensitizer nanoconjugates are often used, posing barriers for large-scale manufacturing and regulatory approval. Herein, we report a streamlined X-PDT strategy based on CsI(Na)@MgO nanoparticles and 5-aminolevulinic acid…


Calcium Nanoparticles to Stimulate Dendritic Cell and Boost T cell Immunity Against Cancer

Dendritic cells (DCs) are the most effective type of antigen-representing cells (APCs).[1] DCs capture tumor antigens, process them, and migrate to the T cell zone in tumor-draining lymph nodes (TDLNs) where they prime T cells through cross-presentation. During this process, DCs manifest upregulated antigen-presenting molecules (major histocompatibility complexes MHC-I and MHC-II) and costimulatory molecules (CD80, CD86 and CD40),[2] and…


Rheology Behind the Scenes

Materials all around us can be classified as either elastic, viscous, or viscoelastic. One can determine where a material falls within the viscosity spectrum based on its rheological properties. With its start in the 1920s, rheology is still an up-and-coming method of characterization for everyday use materials.1 This is because materials such as plastics, paints, biological materials, and more contain both solid and liquid aspects.2 Unlike its…
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