Bright future
PHOTONIC CHEMISTRY
Through his company Phantin, Cheng Lu, pictured here at a solar farm in Jiangsu province in China, has...
Read More >>View the Winter 2017 Canadian Chemical News (ACCN) print issue as a PDF.
Alberta wells gush a different gold
PETROCHEMISTRY
Technology aimed at cleaning up the wastewater generated by oil and gas extraction could also transform Alberta into one of the world’s leading lithium producers. This element has become a key ingredient in batteries powering everything from smart phones to automobiles, but most of it comes from conventionally mined sources outside of Canada. Now this...
Read More >>Peeking at pillowing in batteries
ENERGY
Amid concerns over the safety and quality of lithium ion batteries, these ubiquitous power sources surrender their secrets to the synchrotron.
Read More >>Canadian chemical community mourns death of Khaled Belkacemi in Québec shooting
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Khaled Belkacemi, a highly respected professor in the Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences at Université Laval in Québec City, and a member of the Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE).
Read More >>Eugenia Kumacheva is first female recipient of the CIC Medal
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
One of Canada’s most influential materials scientists, University of Toronto professor Eugenia Kumacheva, is the first female recipient of the Chemical Institute of Canada’s most prestigious award..
Read More >>Calgary students learn how to manage careers in a recession
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
On Jan. 17, 2017 the University of Calgary’s Canadian Society for Chemical Engineering (CSChE) student chapter, in collaboration with the Calgary CSChE local section..
Read More >>Ottawa CSChE chapter explores Shell plant
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
This past November, 40 chemical engineering students from the University of Ottawa visited the Shell Canada Brockville Lubricants Plant, the largest blender and packager...
Read More >>Outstanding inorganic chemistry students recognized by CIC subject division
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
The Inorganic Chemistry Subject Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada is pleased to announce its 2017 student award recipients. James T. Goettel of...
Read More >>Chemical powerhouse gets a green light
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Southwestern Ontario spawned North America's petrochemical economy and now the research infrastructure that built this industry is contributing to the rise of a new generation of biochemical ventures.
Read More >>CNC-IUPAC travel awards highlight emerging Canadian chemists
COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS
Four emerging Canadian chemists have been awarded Canadian National Committee for the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (CNC-IUPAC) travel awards...
Read More >>Target on methane
PETROCHEMISTRY
A high-efficiency incinerator at Cenovus Energy’s terminal near Edmonton destroys all noxious hydrocarbon emissions as tank cars are loaded with crude oil. Photo credit: Questor Technology Decades before climate change became an environmental crisis, Canada’s petroleum industry disposed of then-unmarketable natural gas, or methane, simply by burning it. In Alberta’s Turner Valley oilfield in the 1920s,...
Read More >>The New Switcheroo
GREEN CHEMISTRY
For most of human history, fresh water was wherever we could find it. Communities were set up on flood plains to take advantage of natural irrigation, along rivers that lent themselves to easy availability or in regions rich with aquifers that could be tapped for wells. We have steadily freed ourselves from water’s geographical tyranny,...
Read More >>Changes for Canadaʼs Environmental Protection Act
ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY
In February 2016, the Canadian House of Commons Standing Committee on the Environment and Sustainable Development undertook a Parliamentary Review of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act (CEPA 99). The act, originally passed by former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien’s government, established, among other things, Canada’s Chemicals Management Plan (CMP). At the time, it was considered...
Read More >>Chameleon chemist
EDUCATION
When Jennifer Murphy was growing up in Portugal Cove, NL, her father would take her cod jigging, a uniquely Newfoundland way of fishing that involves throwing a piece of baited line with hooks into the water, then letting it sink. As the line is retrieved, it is tugged...
Read More >>Magnets attract not only metal but gullible people
CHEMFUSION
Magnets are fascinating. Imagine the amazement of the ancient Greeks who discovered that some naturally occurring stones, later named magnetite because they were found in the region of Magnesia, attracted iron. The stones also quickly attracted superstitious beliefs. Magnetite was said to have the ability to heal the sick and frighten away evil spirits. Archimedes...
Read More >>Bringing crystallized blood cells in from the cold
HEALTH
Imagine waiting in line to buy the latest smart phone, laying down a great deal of money for it, then suddenly being told that if you don’t plug in your new purchase within 15 minutes, it will never work. High tech vendors would hate this approach, as would their...
Read More >>Fishing for bacteria reels in huge health challenge
BIOCHEMISTRY
A sophisticated understanding of biochemistry and microfluidics has yielded a simple, cost-effective way of dealing with contaminated water, a problem facing more than a billion people in the developing world. Among the most prominent ...
Read More >>Investigators corral the secrets of mad cow disease
ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Prions, the misfolded proteins that can wreak havoc on the brain, are slowly surrendering their secrets. First identified in the late 1980s as the culprit behind mad cow disease (Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans), investigators have spent the past 25 years trying to determine...
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