Department of Chemistry
The City College of New York-CUNY


News & Highlights
(Selected)
Scientific American on May 2, 2008 in the news, “A Silver Coating in the Fight against Microbes”.

The New York Times on April 9, 2008 in Technology Innovation, “Harnessing Biology, and Avoiding Oil, for Chemical Goods”.

Prof. John featured in ‘Mathrubhumi’, National Newspaper, India on March 09, 2008.
  Biobased Organic Synthesis  |  Molecular Gels and Drug-Delivery  |  Nanoparticles: Synthesis and Catalysis  |  Polymers and Coatings
Self-Assembled Functional Architectures  |  Undergraduate Research

Research - Polymers and Coatings


Polymers and antibacterial coatings. Natures’ vast repertoire of generating functional materials from simple starting materials is shown no better than in the oxidative drying of oils to form excellent natural coatings. Efficient utilization of such mechanism and materials for the modern lab techniques would be ideal for a sustainable and green approach for the future technologies. This research project focused on developing and understanding the new green method to synthesize metal nanoparticles (MNPs) embedded paints, in a single-step, from common household vegetable oils and paints. Herein, naturally occurring oxidative drying process in oils, involving free-radical mediated cross-linking, is used as the fundamental driving force for reducing metal salts to MNPs in oil medium. This is an ongoing collaborative research effort between CCNY and Rice University, developing eco-friendly, scalable, and inexpensive process for nanomaterials synthesis.

Related Publications:

Kumar, A., Vemula, P., Ajayan, P. M., John, G. ‘Silver Nanoparticles Embedded Anti-microbial Paints Based on Vegetable Oil’. Nature Materials, 7, 236-241(2008).

Vemula, P., Douglas, K., Achong, C., Kumar, A., Ajayan, P., John. G. ‘Autoxidation Induced Metal Nanoparticles Synthesis in Biobased Polymeric Systems: A Sustainable Approach in Hybrid Materials Development’ Journal of Biobased Materials and Bioenergy (in press). Selected as cover page feature article.



 
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Department of Chemistry | Division of Science | The City College of New York | Graduate Center of CUNY | CUNY
© 2008 George John's Soft Materials Research Group.