With the rising concern regarding environmental pollution and greenhouse gases, the demand for clean and renewable energy sources has never been greater. Recent developments in fuel cell technology have been promising; however, these fuel cells may be unsuited for mass production due to the prohibitive cost of the platinum-group metal nanoparticles which are required as electrocatalysts. Thus, there is a pressing need for improvements to fuel cell technology such that they require much less platinum metal.

Erythropoietin is a protein with attached sugars that stimulates the production of red blood cells. As such, it can be used by athletes to enhance their competitive performance, an act that is called doping. Erythropoietin that us used for doping is typically produced in animal cells, which functionalize the protein with sugars that differ from those produced in human cells.

There is a strong push toward producing fuel cells on a commercial scale. This means a greater focus on production speed and yields with a need to understand the unintended features that arise from larger-scale manufacturing processes. This project requires the set up of state-of-the-art, camera-vision, defect detection equipment to find and collect observed membrane features. These features will then be catalogued and tested to determine their impact on membrane durability and whether they affect later processing steps.

Peanut is one of the leading foods that can cause food allergies. An extremely low amount of peanut protein is sufficient to cause mild reactions in people who are sensitive to peanut. Over 90% of allergic reaction cases derived from peanut digestion are related to Ara h 1, a glycoprotein that comprises about 15% of the total protein content in peanut and are not degraded during food processing. In this project, we aim to develop a dual fluorescence-SERS immunoassay using graphene quantum dot labeling on aligned magnetoplasmonic nanowires.

The potential for solar cells as renewable energy sources is increasingly recognized as better devices come to the market. It has been recognized that the use of organic dyes as sensitizers can greatly enhance their performance. As a result, there has been an increased effort to develop new dye-sensitized materials for more efficient light harvesting. In order to optimize the conversion of solar energy into electricity, the surface orientation and conformation of the dye is a critical aspect of its performance.

Nature’s ability to convert solar energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis has inspired the development of a host of photoredox systems in efforts to mimic this process. The capacity of fluorine atoms to engender a variety of useful properties in pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and performance materials has driven significant research efforts toward the invention of novel fluorination reactions. We
proposed to construct C-F bonds by photoreodox catalysis via a radical pathway. Our project will bring potential benefit to academia and industry.