NJC Blog

We are pleased to announce the recent poster prizes awarded at the 2011 Entretiens Jacques Cartier Colloquium on 21^st Century Catalysis Science and Applications held in Ottawa, Canada on September 29,30.

• Dr. Marianne Trépannier (University of Ottawa) was selected for her poster entitled, “The role of catalytic site deposition on cobalt catalysts supported on carbon nanotubes for Fischer-Tropsch synthesis.”

Marianne obtained her PhD degree from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada. During her PhD study she worked on research project that focused on improving the Co/CNT catalyst selectivity for FTS synthesis. ”The most important result of this project is that by controlling the active metal position in the carbon nanotubes (CNT) support, the catalyst shows better selectivity for diesel. Moreover, deposition of the cobalt particle inside the CNT decreases the catalyst deactivation phenomena”, comments on her project results.

Marianne now holds a postdoctoral position in Dr. Sayari group at Center for Catalysis Research and Innovation and her future plan is to become a research leader in catalysis for renewable energy.

(photo: Dr. Marianne Trépannier and Prof. R. Tom Baker,  CCRI Director (University of Ottawa))

• The other poster prize was awarded to Dr. Daniel Harrison (University of Ottawa) for his poster entitled, “New cobalt fluorocarbenes: Synthesis and preliminary reactivity studies.”

Daniel is postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Tom Baker’s group, at the Centre for Catalysis Research and Innovation, University of Ottawa, Canada.

The goal of his project has been to make new, nucleophilic metal fluorocarbenes of non-precious metals for potential applications in fluoroalkene polymerization. A real challenge, as it turns out…Working on this project early two years, Daniel has had success in extending chemistry developed by Hughes and co-workers to cobalt (their work has focused on much more expensive Ir).The syntheses of the new cobalt fluorocarbenes were disclosed in the prize-winning poster for the first time. Preliminary reactivity studies, establish that these new fluorocarbenes of cobalt have the desired nucleophilic reactivity.

When queried about his future plans, Daniel commented: “I’ll continue working on cobalt fluorocarbenes, while balancing other responsibilities, such as lab maintenence and supervising undergraduate/graduate students.  I’m thrilled with the opportunity to stay in the Baker group, especially now that my project is working!”