CO2 Mitigation by Inexpensive Transition Metal Complex Processes
Supervisor(s): Professor Al Nielson
Supervisor’s webpage: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/about/natural-sciences/inms-staff/all-staff/all-staff_home.cfm?stref=505330
Project Description
The addition of anthropogenic CO2 to the atmosphere each year represents about 3.9% excess with respect to the yearly CO2-flow in the natural carbon cycle. This increase amounts to about 25 Giga tons of CO2 being added to the atmosphere each year and global warming is now largely attributed to this excess. New ways are now necessary to reduce the CO2 output by storing the gas or turning it into products for other uses. The summer studentship project attempt to address the problem of chemically turning CO2 into other products in an energy-efficient manner and thus achieve carbon recycling. This will be carried out by continuing on from a promising 123.332 project started in 2020 where transition metal complexes have been prepared but due to the COVID lock downs we have been unable to advance the project to the point of testing the reactivity of the complexes with CO2.
Dynamics of Infrared induced melting
Supervisor(s): Associate Professor John Harrison
Supervisor’s webpage: https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/learning/colleges/college-of-sciences/research/natural-mathematical-sciences/chemistry-research/stanford-partnership.cfm?stref=753230
Project Description
How materials melt and the energy flow amongst the different degrees of freedom of the molecular system is an area of fundamental interest. We have recently observed coupling between vibrational and translational quantum states in several systems at temperatures approaching the melting point. These experiments have demonstrated a new mechanism for melting that has not previously been documented. The observable effect shows up in the IR spectra as peaks with very asymmetric line-shapes and even upside-down peaks, which have a very sensitive temperature dependence.
The project will require taking low temperature IR spectra (10-35 K) of isolated molecules trapped in solid argon and analysing the spectra in terms of the underlying dynamical behavior. A publication is in preparation from the initial results on pure materials and the recipient of the summer scholarship will be involved in collection of data, analysis and writing up the results for publication.