SOUTHWESTRETORT
SEVENTY-SEVENTH YEAR November-December 2024
Published for the advancement of Chemists, Chemical Engineers and Chemistry in this area published by
The Dallas-Fort Worth Section, with the cooperation of five other local sections of theAmerican Chemical Society in the Southwest Region.
Vol. 77 (3-4) November-December 2024
Editorial and Business Offices: Contact the Editor for subscription and advertisement information.
Editor: Connie Hendrickson: retort@acsdfw.org
Copy and Layout Editor: Lance Hughes: hugla64@gmail.com
Business Manager: Martha Gilchrist: Martha.Gilchrist@tccd.edu
The Southwest Retort is published monthly, September through May, by the Dallas-Ft. Worth Section of the American Chemical Society, Inc., for the ACS Sections of the Southwest Region.
2024ACS DFW Executive Committee
Chair: Rajani Srinivasan
Chair-elect: Denise Lynn Merkle
Past Chair: Michaela C. Stefan
Treasurer: Martha Gilchrist
Secretary: Trey Putnam
Councilors:
MaryAnderson
Kirby Drake
Linda SchultzR
Rebecca Weber
Alternate Councilors:
Michael Bigwood
Daniela Hutanu
Danny Tran
Dr. Edwin Thomas "Tom" Strom, Ph.D. JUNE 11, 1936 – OCTOBER 26, 2024 Continued on Page 14
From the ACS Press Room Using sunlight to recycle black plastics
“Recycling of Post-Consumer Waste Polystyrene Using Commercial Plastic Additives”
ACS Central Science
Not all plastics are equal some types and colors are easier to recycle than others. For instance, black foam and black coffee lids, which are often made of polystyrene, usually end up in landfills because color additives lead to ineffective sorting. Now, researchers report in ACS Central Science the ability to leverage one additive in black plastics, with the help of sunlight or white LEDs, to convert black and colored polystyrene waste into reusable starting materials.
“Simple, visible light irradiation holds the potential to transform the chemical recycling of plastics, using the additives already found in many commercial products,” say the paper’s authors, Sewon Oh, Hanning Jiang and Erin Stache.
An emerging strategy for plastic recycling involves using light to help break down plastic into chemically useful materials that can be recycled into new products. This process requires a helper compound to convert light into the heat needed to break apart polymer bonds. However, finding the right helper that won’t create more waste and is easily incorporated into recycled materials remains a challenge for researchers. Seeking to create a circular economy for plastic recycling, Stache and a team of researchers took advantage of something already found in black polystyrene waste an additive known as carbon black.The researchers tested a method
to recycle lab-made black polystyrene: They ground a mixture of polystyrene and carbon black to a fine powder, placed the powder in a sealed glass vial and then set the vial under high-intensity white LEDs for 30 minutes. The carbon black converted the LED light into heat. The heat then broke apart the polystyrene’s molecular structure, creating a mixture of shorter one-, two- and three-styrene units. And these three components cleanly separated within the reaction apparatus. In experiments, the team recycled the leftover carbon black and styrene monomer into polystyrene, demonstrating the circularity of the new method.
Inside this reaction vial, spotlit by concentrated sunlight, a piece of black polystyrene from a foam tray breaks down into a recyclable material. Hanning Jiang
Applying the technique to post-consumer black plastic from food containers and coffee cup lids, the researchers cut the waste into small pieces and found that up to 53% of the polystyrene converted to styrene monomer. Waste samples contaminated with canola oil, soy sauce and orange juice broke down slightly less efficiently. When the researchers switched the light source from LEDs to focused sunlight outdoors, they observed a higher reaction efficiency (80%). Additionally, a multicolored mixture of black, yellow, red and colorless polystyrene waste converted to styrene in sunlit conditions at a higher
Continued on page 20
From the ACS Press Room
An innovative antibiotic for drug-resistant bacteria
“In Vivo Activity Profiling of Biosynthetic Darobactin D22 against Critical GramNegative Pathogens”
ACS Infectious Diseases
Antibacterial drugs are important for treating infections. But increasingly, bacterial resistance to current drugs so they don’t work well, or even at all means new ones are urgently needed. Building on previous work, researchers in ACS Infectious Diseases have demonstrated a potential antibacterial treatment from a modified darobactin, a compound originally from a bacterium. The team reports proof-of-concept animal trials on infections caused by bacteria, including E. coli, that are known to develop drug resistance.
This study was published during the World Health Organization’s World Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Awareness Week from November 18 to 24.
Earlier in 2024, the World Health Organization updated its list of bacterial pathogens that can develop resistance to antibiotics to include Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and E. coli, among others. Despite the need for new antibiotics that target these priority pathogens, scientists don’t have many candidates. One potential resistance-breaking compound is called darobactin, a naturally produced antibiotic discovered in a bacterium. Darobactin binds to an essential protein in cells of different bacteria and eventually causes their death. Previously, Rolf Müller, Jennifer Herrmann and colleagues showed that genet-
ically engineered versions of darobactin have antibacterial activity. Specifically, one of these non-natural, biosynthetic darobactins (called D22) inhibited A. baumannii growth in lab assays.
Anew antibacterial approach targets treatment-resistant bacteria, such as E. coli, that are categorized as a priority by the World Health Organization.
Saiful52/ Shutterstock.com
For this new study, a larger team led by Müller and Herrmann tested the engineered D22 compound against several priority bacterial infections in animals. First, in zebrafish embryos, D22 treatment cleared A. baumannii infection as effectively as ciprofloxacin, a broad-spectrum antibiotic used for complicated infections. Then the team conducted a series of efficacy and dosing trials with mice:
• Best delivery method: Observations indicated that administering D22 as an injection was more effective than via mouth.
• Efficacy against P. aeruginosa: Repeated doses of D22 substantially limited P. aeruginosa bacterial growth in mice (thigh tissue infection) but didn’t fully clear the infection.
• Multi-dose experiments against E. coli: Administering D22 four times in 25 hours fully cleared E. coli in a severe infection model of peritonitis (abdomen
Continued on page 20
First place
Akshara Kasinathan
Grade level : 6-8
School : Lawler Middle School
Second Place
Emma Hutanu
Grade level: 6-8
School: Schimelpfenig Middle School
From the ACS Press Room
Fueling greener aviation with hydrogen
“Challenges of Decarbonizing Aviation via Hydrogen Propulsion: Technology Performance Targets and Energy System TradeOffs”
ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering
Despite ongoing efforts to curb CO2 emissions with electric and hybrid vehicles, other forms of transportation remain significant contributors of greenhouse gases. To address this issue, old technologies are being revamped to make them greener, such as the reintroduction of sailing vessels in shipping and new uses for hydrogen in aviation. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering have used computer modeling to study the feasibility and challenges of hydrogen-powered aviation.
Sirisuwansit / Shutterstock.com
Dharik Mallapragada, one of the study’s coauthors.
The aviation industry’s energy-related CO2 emissions have grown faster than those of rail, road and shipping in recent decades, according to the International Energy Agency. To reduce the potential climate impacts of this growth, scientists are improving aircraft design and operation, and developing lowemission fuels such as hydrogen, which is used for direct combustion or to power electric fuel cells. Hydrogen’s appeal as a fuel source is that its use produces no CO2 and provides more energy per pound than jet fuel. To understand the potential impact of switching from traditional jet fuel to hydrogen fuel in aviation, Anna Cybulsky, Mallapragada and colleagues modeled its use in the electrification of regional and short-range turboprop aircraft.
The researchers calculated that the extra bulk of a hydrogen fuel tank and fuel cells retrofitted to an existing plane would need to be offset by weight reductions elsewhere, such as reducing the aircraft’s payload (cargo or passengers). This could mean that more flights would be needed to deliver the same payload. The team’s model suggested, however, that improvements in fuel cell power and the fuel system’s gravimetric index (the weight of the fuel in relation to the weight of the full fuel tank) could eliminate the need to reduce payload, thus eliminating the environmental impact of additional flights. At the same time, they noted that shifting to hydrogen-powered flight may reduce the aviation industry’s
“While there is a long way to go for hydrogen aviation to be realized at scale, we hope that our analysis of both onboard system design and enabling infrastructure will be used to prioritize development efforts,” says Continued on page 21
Hydrogen-powered flight might help reduce the aviation industry’s growing CO2 emissions. Chakorn
From the ACS Press Room
Some wildfire suppressants contain heavy metals and could contaminate the environment
“Metals in Wildfire Suppressants”
Environmental Science & Technology Letters
In fire-prone areas, water isn’t the only thing used to quell blazes. Wildland firefighters also apply chemical or synthetic suppressants. Researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters explored whether these suppressants could be a source of elevated metal levels sometimes found in waterways after wildfires are extinguished. Several products they investigated contained high levels of at least one metal, including chromium and cadmium, and could contribute to post-fire increases in the environment.
“Wildfires are associated with the release of toxic heavy metals to the environment, but until now, it was assumed that these metals came from natural sources like soil,” says Daniel McCurry, principal investigator of the study. “We now know that fire retardants may contribute to these metal releases.” Wildfire suppressant products, which are intended to inhibit fire activity before and after water evaporates, include fire retardants, water enhancers and foams. As wildfires have become more frequent and severe, larger volumes of water along with chemical and synthetic suppressants sprayed from the ground and dropped from planes have been required to extinguish them. Although manufacturers identify most of the active ingredients in suppressants, some components are proprietary. In addi-
tion, previous researchers have observed increased concentrations of potentially toxic metals in soil and streams after wildfires. So, McCurry and colleagues at the University of Southern California wondered if the suppressants contain metals and could contaminate the environment.
Spraying fire suppressants helps extinguish many wildfires, but the process could also be spreading metals into the environment.
DavidAughenbaugh/ Shutterstock.com
The researchers tested samples from 14 fire suppression products sold by commercial retailers. They analyzed samples for 10 metals that have known toxicity or are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Every product contained at least one metal with a concentration that exceeded the EPA’s Maximum Contaminant Level regulations for drinking water. In particular, the two suppression products classified as fire retardants contained eight metals (chromium, cadmium, arsenic, lead, vanadium, manganese, antimony and thallium) that greatly exceeded the EPA’s drinking water regulations. And one of the retardants exceeded California’s hazardous waste regulations for three of those metals. The researchers say these results indicate the potential for fire retardants to contaminate the aquatic environment and
Continued on page 21
From the ACS Press Room
Lab-grown pork gets support from sorghum grain
“Sorghum Prolamin Scaffolds-Based Hybrid Cultured Meat with Enriched Sensory Properties”
Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Meat grown in a lab isn’t science fiction anymore. Cultured meats have existed for over a decade, and as of 2023, you might even find lab-grown chicken in restaurants (in the U.S., at least). Now, with the literal support of plant-based scaffolds, “clean meat” options are expanding. Researchers publishing in ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry have created a prototype cultured pork using a new material: kafirin proteins isolated from red sorghum grain.
Aprototype cultured pork (left) grown on a scaffold of red sorghum proteins appears similar to real pork (right). Adapted from the Journal ofAgricultural and Food Chemistry 2024, DOI:10.1021/acs.jafc.4c06474
Cultured meats have emerged alongside plant -based meats as more ethical and environmentally friendly alternatives to eating animals. Manufacturing both types requires far less land and water, and the process emits fewer greenhouse gases during production. Unlike plant-based mimics, cultured meats use actual animal cells, but they are grown in a lab on porous protein scaffolds rather than obtained directly from an animal’s flesh. A
variety of materials, including wheat gluten, pea protein and soy protein, have been used to create these supports. However, these water-soluble options require extra treatment steps or cause problems for those with gluten intolerances or allergies. To address that, Linzhi Jing, Dejian Huang and colleagues proposed using kafirin a protein found in sorghum grain as a gluten-free, waterinsoluble alternative protein for scaffolding on which to grow a prototype cultured pork. The team extracted kafirin from red sorghum flour and constructed a porous, 3D protein scaffold by soaking sugar cubes in the kafirin solution. The proteins stuck to the sugar crystals, which were then dissolved using water, leaving behind a cube-shaped support structure. To make the prototype cultured meat, Jing, Huang and colleagues introduced pork stem cells to the scaffold. After 12 days, they saw that the cells had readily attached to the kafirin and were differentiating into pork muscle and fat cells.
Compared to raw lean pork, the cultured pork contained more protein and saturated fat and fewer mono- and polyunsaturated fats. Researchers also found that red pigments from the sorghum provided the cultured meat with a pork-like color and some antioxidant properties. However, because the sorghum’s structural proteins were so stable, the cultured meat’s texture and color changed very little after boiling, making the raw and cooked versions look similar. The researchers say that additional work is needed to finetune the cultured pork’s nutritional and textural properties, but this study proves kafirin’s utility as a promising scaffold mate-
Continued on page 21
From the ACS Press Room
Pushing the boundaries of traditional ceramic techniques
“Art and Science of Reinforcing Ceramics with Graphene via Ultrasonication Mixing”
ACS Omega
Art and science are sometimes poles apart, but that isn’t the case in a research project described in ACS Omega. For this work, an interdisciplinary team merged scientific research, technological advancements and artistic exploration to experiment with the production, properties and application of a new kind of ceramic.
An art installation of graphene-reinforced ceramics produced by Delia Prvački.
DariaAndreeva, National University of Singapore, and Delia Prvački, Deliarts Pte Ltd.
In recent years, scientists have been adding graphene oxide (GO) to ceramic slurries consisting of particles of kaolin clay or other materials dispersed in water to make fired ceramics more durable and resistant to thermal shock. Materials scientist Daria Andreeva and colleagues adapted this technique by using ultrasound to better mix the GO into kaolin slurries. They adjusted GO concentration
Fired graphene-reinforced ceramics are ready for strength and heat resistance testing.
DariaAndreeva, National University of Singapore, and Delia Prvački, Deliarts Pte Ltd.
and ultrasound exposure time to find the conditions that most enhanced the resulting ceramics’strength and heat resistance. The team also collaborated with artist-in-residence Delia Prvački, who created works from the new ceramic material that are on display at the National University of Singapore Museum.
In the care of Laurel Land Funeral Home & Laurel Land Memorial Park Dr. Edwin Thomas (Tom) Strom, PhD Obituary
Dr. E. Thomas (Tom) Strom (a Ph.D., not a real doctor) died October 26, 2024, at age 88, in Palma de Majorca, Spain while on vacation with his daughter and her husband. He was a chemist, teacher, editor, writer, and follower of Christ.
To honor Tom’s memory as an Adjunct Professor in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department, the University of Texas at Arlington has set up a memorial scholarship in his name. The family asks that any contributions be made to one of the following.
• UTAEdwin Thomas Strom Memorial Scholarship https://www.give.uta.edu/strom
• Agape Fund or Scholarship Fund of Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church https:// www.ocpres.com/give
Edwin Thomas Strom was born June 11, 1936, in Des Moines, Iowa. His mother was a Swedish immigrant, Maria Kristina Johansson Strom, and his father was Edwin Lewis Carolina Strom, himself the son of Swedish immigrants. His parents and half-brothers, Norman Edwin Strom and William Val Strom, preceded him in death. Tom was also preceded in death by his wife of 65 years, Charlotte Faye Williams Strom (https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/dallas-tx/charlotte-strom11409166), who died in August 2023, and his son, Eric William Strom (https:// www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/chapin-sc/eric-strom-11841994), who died in May 2024.
He is survived by his daughter Laura Christine Strom and her husband Mark Stackpole, his son’s wife Kathy Kirchhoff Strom, his grandchildren Sven Erik Strom Dickinson, Karin Noël Strom Dickinson, Thor Kjell Strom Dickinson, Michelle Kimberly Strom, and Diana Gao Dickinson, step-grandchild Evan Stackpole, his former son-in-law Wade Dickinson, and his nieces Linda Strom Plazak, Nancy Fahrney Fallis, and Kristine Fahrney Wiant. He is survived by great granddaughter, Nohea’mani Charlotte Norman-Dickinson, and great grandson, Jace Akua NormanDickinson. His wife, Charlotte, his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren were the greatest joy of his old age.
Tom Strom grew up in Des Moines, Iowa, and graduated first in his class at North Des Moines High School. He attended the University of Iowa on an Iowa Merit
Scholarship and graduated with a B.S. Chemistry degree in 1958. He married his wife, Charlotte, the day after graduation. At the University of Iowa, he was a member of Phi Eta Sigma and Phi Lambda Upsilon honorary fraternities, and Theta Xi social fraternity. He received awards in both his junior and senior years as the outstanding student in chemistry. He went to graduate school at the University of California at Berkeley, graduating in 1961 with an M.S. Chemistry degree in nuclear chemistry. There followed graduate school at Iowa State University as an NIH Fellow, where he received a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry under mentor Glen Russell in 1964.
He joined Mobil Research and Development Corp. in Dallas in January 1964, but shortly thereafter entered the U.S. Army Chemical Corps as a 1st Lieutenant to fulfill an ROTC obligation. He rejoined Mobil in March 1966, as a Senior Research Chemist. He retired from Mobil in December 1995. He had been teaching chemistry in night school at institutions such as Dallas Baptist University, El Centro Community College, UT-Dallas, and UT-Arlington (UTA), so after retiring from Mobil, he immediately joined the faculty at UTA as an Adjunct Professor, where he taught organic, polymer, and industrial chemistry for more than forty years until May 2020. Scores of his students wound up in medical, dental, and pharmacy programs. As a researcher, he had around 50 publications, and he held 25 U.S. patents and numerous foreign patents.
He was active in church, community, and professional affairs. He was a member of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), and the International Electron Paramagnetic Resonance Society. He served ACS for many years as a Councilor and was also on the ACS Committees on Economic and Professional Affairs and International Relations. He won the Wilfred T. Doherty Award of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section of the ACS in 1989. Tom was Editor for over 27 years of the ACS regional publication, The Southwest Retort, and wrote many articles, book reviews, and editorials for that magazine.
He was the co-editor of six books on the history of chemistry:
• 100 Plus Years of Plastics. Leo Baekeland and Beyond;
• Pioneers of Quantum Chemistry;
• The Foundations of Physical Organic Chemistry. 50 Years of the James Flack NorrisAward;
• The Posthumous Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Volume 1. Correcting the Errors and Oversights of the Nobel Prize Committee;
• The Posthumous Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Volume 2. Ladies in Waiting for the Nobel Prize; and
• Pioneers of Magnetic Resonance.
For the last five of those six books, he wrote or co-wrote chapters on famous chemists.
In 2009 he was honored to be one of the inaugural groups of ACS Fellows, and he served the ACS Division of the History of Chemistry as Chair in 2011-2012. At the time of his death, he was Book Review Editor for the journal Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. With SPE he served many years on the International Oil Field Chemistry Symposium Committee.
When integration came to Southwest Oak Cliff in 1971, he worked in the area of neighborhood stabilization. He headed a group of interveners in the DISD school desegregation suit to see that integrated areas of Oak Cliff would not be subjected to forced busing. He also was a member of the Tri-Ethic Committee monitoring the DISD desegregation efforts. A member of Oak Cliff Presbyterian Church from 1983 on, he served on the Session of that congregation, and he participated in the church’s Great Banquet programs.
Tom was a classical music buff and played the piano reasonably well. He loved the composers Rachmaninoff, Puccini, Delius, Rutter, and Debussy, and he was a tireless promoter of the music of Swedish composer Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. He had a fine, but subtle sense of humor, an example of which is present in this obituary. He enjoyed reading, and an important hobby was Egyptology. He was a member of the North Texas Chapter of the American Research Center in Egypt. He was also a long-time, 50+ years, member of the Oak Cliff Lions Club.
Excerpt from the obituary on Dr. Strom at the UTA Chemistry and Biochemistry website.
“‘Tom Strom was a wonderful person and a true all-rounder a dedicated scientist, an inspiring teacher, a gifted writer, and a committed public servant,’ said Rasika Dias, professor and chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. ‘His contributions to our department and the wider chemical community were substantial. Passionate and active in his research until the end, Tom inspired all who knew him. He will be deeply missed.’”
His family, friends and church community feel the same – Tom was an inspiration and will be missed in the hearts of all those fortunate enough to know him.
Link to UTA article on Dr. Strom: https://www.uta.edu/academics/schoolscolleges/science/news/2024/11/14/in-memoriam-e--thomas-strom--longtimeadjunct-professor-in-chemistry
Around the Area
University of Texas Dallas
Associate Professor Mario Wriedt, Founding Director of the UT Dallas Crystallography Center (https:// labs.utdallas.edu/ crystallographycenter/) presented seminars at TexasA&M University, the University of North Texas, Washington State University, and the 81st Pittsburgh Diffraction Conference, and was awarded a $190K SRA from The Estee Lauder Companies, Inc.
Associate Professor Ronald Smaldone was awarded a $345K DoD STTR II withAkita Innovations, LLC.
Associate Professor Jeremiah Gassensmith and Biological Sciences Associate Professor Nicole De Nisco were awarded a $449K R21 grant from the NIH.
CPRIT Scholar and RobertA. Welch Distinguished Chair Rudi Fasan was awarded a $790K R01 grant from the NIH.
Cecil H. and Ida Green Professor in Systems Biology Jie Zheng was awarded a $250K CPRIT grant.
Zurwa Latif, Romiti Lab, won the 2nd best poster award at the 2024 Robert A. Welch Foundation Conference on Chemical Research in the graduate student category, and Dr. Gujjula Ramakrishna, Romiti Lab, won the 2nd best poster award in the postdoctoral scientist category. Assistant Professor and CPRIT Scholar Filippo Romiti’s research “Catalytic prenyl conjugate additions for synthesis of enantiomerically enriched PPAPs” was published in Science. https:// www.science.org/doi/10.1126/ science.adr8612
The UTD School of Natural Sciences and Mathematics has announced a new undergraduate degree in biomedical sciences that will prepare graduates for success in health professions and scientific careers by combining elements of biology, chemistry, biochemistry, physics and mathematical sciences.https://news.utdallas.edu/studentsteaching/biomedical-sciences-degree-2024/
Around the Area
UNT emeritus professor recognized internationally for project 12 years in the making
DENTON (UNT), Texas A project that took 12 years to complete by University of North Texas College of Science Emeritus Professor James Marshall and his late wife, Virginia “Jenny” Marshall, is now getting international recognition.
The Marshalls earned the HIST Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry for their “Rediscovery of the Chemical Elements” research project. The award is international in scope and recognizes an outstanding career of contributing to the history of chemistry.
“The goal was to actually visit all the places where the elements have been discovered,” said James Marshall, who served on faculty at UNT from 1967 through his retirement in 2017. “It just hadn’t been done before.”
The two traveled all over the world to visit the locations where elements on the periodic table were originally discovered totaling 28 countries. They would document the journey in a series of articles and give more insight into the discovery of each element. The massive undertaking originally began as a vacation idea.
“I remember Jenny asked where I wanted to go on our honeymoon,” Marshall said. “Well, there was a book called The Discovery of the Elements by Mary Elvira Weeks. It’s from the 1930s, and she wrote about all the places where elements had been discovered. And I said ‘let’s do that.’”
Despite most elements being well known with widespread use, some of the original labs where they were discovered were hard to track down. The Marshalls would find themselves playing the part of detectives in some cases.
“Sometimes it wasn’t obvious. For example, we had to go to the library at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany to find an article on radon,” Marshall said. “But it had the wrong date on it, and we had to correct the library. Remember, some of these articles were from the early 1900s.”
One of Marshall’s favorite locations the couple visited involved such detective work and a little luck.
“It was a great moment in Berlin. We had been searching for a lab all day with no luck, so we stopped to eat at a café,” Marshall said. “We’re sitting there and Jenny suddenly goes, ‘Jim, there’s a plaque!’So, I told the waiter we’d be right, and back there it was. A little plaque for the lab where uranium was discovered.”
After their trips, the Marshall's wrote articles on the elements and their history. The papers were originally published in The Hexagon, the official journal of the chemical fraternity Alpha Chi Sigma. Eventually, they had written more than 50 articles. It was Jenny Marshall who came up with what to do next.
“She said ‘we need to put this on a DVD’. I had no idea how to do that, but she went upstairs and came down two minutes later and had everything designed in Dreamweaver,” Marshall said.
The entire project is available online, hosted through the Department of Chemistry. The site includes the Hexagon articles, information on each element, more than 5,000 photos from their trips and maps highlighting cities they visited.
“It was just fun,” Marshall said. “We never came back trying to impress people with what we did, but to show them just how fun it is to discovery chemistry and to appreciate that science is a magnificent discipline.”
During their trips, the Marshalls collected samples of each natural element that can be safely contained to create a living periodic table in their home. Pieces of that collection now make up the living periodic table which is on display in the UNT Chemistry building.
“We’re very proud that Jim and Jenny’s hard work is being recognized,” College of Science Dean John Quintanilla said. “You could tell the project was a true labor of love, and we’re honored to display a piece of it on campus for everyone to see.”
Marshall will officially receive the award in the fall at a symposium held in the couple’s honor where he also will give an award address. While the award is for both of them, Marshall said most of the credit should go to Jenny.
“If it weren’t for her, this project would not have gone anywhere,” Marshall said. “She was the computer genius behind it, the motivation behind it, and the charm behind it. And there’s no doubt in my mind she’s one of the main reasons we got the award.”
Around the Area
University of Texas Arlington Purnendu "Sandy"
Dasgupta, the Hamish Small Chair of Ion Analysis in UTA's Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, has been named the 2018 Distinguished Texas Scientist by the Texas Academy of Science.
Dasgupta also was recently named the recipient of the 2018 American Chemical Society's Division of Analytical Chemistry Chemical Instrumentation Award.
"Only elite scientists who have made significant international contributions in their fields are selected for these prestigious awards, and Dr. Dasgupta is truly among the greats," said Morteza Khaledi, dean of the UTA College of Science. "He not only challenges but also inspires his colleagues and students in our college and his research is applied science - it is improving public health on a global scale. I congratulate Dr. Dasgupta on yet another honor in his remarkable career."
Dasgupta was previously named the recipient of the 2017 Talanta Medal, an international award in the field of analytical chemistry. The Talanta Medal will be presented in March. In January, one of his papers was listed in The Analytical Scientist as among ten landmark literature papers in the discipline for 2017.
From the ACS Press Room continued
Using sunlight to recycle black plastics
Continued from page 6 rate (67%) compared to white LEDs (45%). The researchers attribute the higher efficiencies to the greater light intensity achieved by focused sunlight. By demonstrating sunlight’s ability to break down colored polystyrene waste, the researchers say that their method could create a closed-loop recycling process for this type of plastic.
The authors acknowledge funding from Cornell University and Princeton University as well as a Catalysis Science Early Career award from the U.S. Department of Energy.
An innovative antibiotic for drug-resistant bacteria
Continued from page 7
infection). Activity was also observed for single doses. Twice-daily D22 injections over three days significantly reduced bacterial presence in a complicated E. coli urinary tract infection, although not as low as the antibiotic gentamicin, which reduced bacterial loads below detection.
These results show that D22 can inhibit critical infections and highlights the compound’s promise for further development toward future clinical trials as “an innovative solution to fight antimicrobial resistance,” say the researchers.
The authors acknowledge funding from the Helmholtz Impuls- und Vernetzungsfonds (Impulse and Networking Fund).
Some of the authors are employees of Evotec, a biotechnology company involved in drug discovery and development.
From the ACS Press Room
Fueling greener aviation with hydrogen
Continued from page 10
CO2 emissions by up to 90%.
A bigger challenge than switching aviation fuel types may be providing the infrastructure needed to generate and distribute hydrogen in a low-carbon and cost-effective manner. One low-carbon production method uses natural gas reforming (extracting hydrogen from methane gas) coupled with carbon capture, but it requires access to CO2 infrastructure and sequestration sites. Another green option is electrolysis, which splits water into hydrogen and oxygen, and could be done by using electricity from a nuclear plant or renewable resources. But this would add substantial demand to electrical grids. Cybulsky and colleagues noted that because grid electricity prices can be highly variable across a region, it may be more cost-effective to transport hydrogen from a low-cost production facility to end-users.
For these reasons, the researchers suggest that the rollout of hydrogen-based aviation might start at locations that have favorable conditions for hydrogen production, such as Hamburg, Germany, or Barcelona, Spain. The infrastructure required to support hydrogen use in aviation would also benefit decarbonization efforts in other industries, including road transportation and shipping, by making hydrogen fuel more available. The authors acknowledge funding from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Energy Initiative Low-Carbon Energy Centers for Energy Storage and Future Energy Systems Center.
Some wildfire suppressants contain heavy metals
Continued from page 11
potentially drinking water, if these products enter bodies of waters.
From the volume of fire retardants dropped on wildfires in the U.S. between 2009 and 2021, the researchers determined that the total amount of metals applied was variable year to year but generally increased over time. And for one Southern California wildfire, they estimate that the increased concentration of cadmium in a nearby stream could be explained by 31% of the reported fire retardant used to contain the fire. They say these results show that fire suppression activities could contribute to elevated metal levels in the environment but that more work is needed to determine potential risks to human and environmental health.
The authors acknowledge funding from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and a University of Southern California Graduate School and Women in Science and Engineering Fellowship.
Lab-grown pork gets support from sorghum grain
Continued from page 12 rial for cultured meat products. The authors acknowledge funding from the National University of Singapore (Suzhou) Research Institute Biomedical and Health Technology Platform and the Natural Science Youth Foundation of Jiangsu, China.
From the Editor
The most important item in this issue is the obituary for Tom Strom, who for me and many others has been the face of the Dallas-Fort Worth Section. He was for many years the editor of this magazine while it was a traditional paper. Although it became on-line when I took over the editorship, Tom always contributed, particularly the section always on page 5: 50 years ago in the Southwest Retort. It seems only right to have his portrait on that page for the last time.
Be sure to look at the article on the Marshalls HIST Award from the American Chemical Society’s Division of the History of Chemistry for their “Rediscovery of the Chemical Elements”.
Another interesting item are the winners of the National Chemistry Week Illustrated Poetry Contest. (I wanted to enter but alas, I am too old! But I may write one any way...it will be either about protein folding or gas law.)
