UConn Today A team of UConn chemists has discovered a new way of making a class of porous materials that allows for greater manufacturing controls and has significantly broader applications than the longtime industry standard. The process, more than three years in the making and outlined in the December 2013 edition of Nature Communications, has […]

UConn Today A UConn research team has found a way to stabilize hemoglobin, the oxygen carrier protein in the blood, a discovery that could lead to the development of stable vaccines and affordable artificial blood substitutes. The team’s novel approach involves wrapping the polymer poly(acrylic acid) around hemoglobin, protecting it from the intense heat used […]

UConn Today Where can you watch a group of inanimate objects come together, form a cohesive structure, and start displaying what looks very much like organic behavior? You might say this sounds like a modern-day Frankenstein. But for a real-life example, you could visit the laboratory of psychologist James Dixon in Storrs, Conn. Dixon and […]

The Daily Campus According to the 2011 National Diabetes Fact Sheet from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 25.8 million people in the U.S. have diabetes. This statistic includes both Type I and Type II diabetes. Diabetes is a serious, life-changing disease that requires blood sugar levels to be monitored many times a […]

UConn Today Nearly 34 million years ago, the Earth underwent a transformation from a warm, high-carbon dioxide “greenhouse” state to a lower-CO2, variable climate similar to the modern “icehouse” world. Massive ice sheets grew across the Antarctic continent, major animal groups shifted, and ocean temperatures decreased by as much as 5 degrees. But studies of how […]

A new $1.8 million project with the Department of Energy (DOE)—led by chemistry professor Steven Suib—will develop new biofuel sources, catalysts, and reactors that would be suitable for the Northeast. The goal of the interdisciplinary project is to develop the technology to the stage where it could be transferred to small biofuel businesses that would […]

Greg Sotzing, professor of chemistry and a member of UConn’s Polymer Program, recently perfected a method for creating quick-changing, variable colors in films and displays, such as sunglasses. Sotzing and his colleagues have made these materials less expensive and less wasteful to manufacture than any previous method. And aside from creating vanity glasses, the technology […]

Nicholas Leadbeater has a reputation. People call him a “microwave chemist,” because he–you guessed it– is a chemist who uses microwaves in his laboratory. But even though these humble machines have enabled him to develop chemical techniques that are faster, cleaner, and “greener” than many similar methods before them, the associate professor of chemistry doesn’t […]