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Winner of the IUPAC Prize
for Young Chemists - 2006

 

Michelle N. Chrétien wins one of the five IUPAC Prizes for Young Chemists, for her Ph.D. thesis work entitled "Photochemical, Photophysical, and Photobiological Studies of Zeolite Guest-Host Complexes."

Current address (at the time of application)

Concordia University
Montréal, QC, H4B 1R6

E-mail: [email protected]

Academic degrees

  • Ph.D. University of Ottawa, August 2005, Chemistry (Physical Organic)
  • B.Sc. Dalhousie University, May 1998, Chemistry

Ph.D. Thesis

Title Photochemical, Photophysical, and Photobiological Studies of Zeolite Guest-Host Complexes

Adviser Prof. J. C. (Tito) Scaiano

Thesis Committee Prof. Andre Beauchemin (University of Ottawa – Chemistry), Prof. John Arnason (University of Ottawa – Biology), Prof. Robert Crutchley (Carleton University – Chemistry), Prof. Edward Clennan (University of Wyoming –Chemistry)


Essay

Zeolites are inorganic solids that are closely related to the soil, sand, minerals, and clays that make up much of the earth around us. Zeolites are nanoporous, crystalline aluminosilicate materials and their tertiary structure forms a series of strictly uniform channels and cavities of molecular dimensions that are repeated along the tri-directional structure of the lattice.

Although the use of zeolites in crude oil conversion and detergent formulations has been extensively studied over the past four decades, the interest of photochemists in zeolites as host systems for supramolecular photochemistry is relatively recent. Zeolites have emerged as convenient and versatile solid hosts for the control of photochemical and photophysical processes. At the time of initiating graduate studies I was very interested in exploiting zeolites, which are inexpensive and readily available, to prepare new materials having interesting and valuable properties. Accordingly, I became involved in several projects exploring the photochemical and photophysical properties of new materials, prepared by the encapsulation of organic or organometallic species within the cavities of aluminosilicate zeolites. Along the way we have examined different facets of intrazeolite photochemistry with the additional aim of developing a more profound understanding of how zeolite media can influence the behaviour of encapsulated guests.

Our research in the area of zeolite photocatalysis was inspired by the profoundly important need for efficient and economical methodologies for the purification of drinking water. In 2004, UNICEF estimated that over one billion people were still without access to sanitary drinking water. The rate of natural biological remediation is surpassed by the quantity of waste released into the system and the vulnerability of global fresh water resources is becoming increasingly apparent. To cope with the effects of pollution on the hydrosphere, the development of treatment methodologies based on efficient catalytic materials has become increasingly important...[more; pdf file - 297KB]

 


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