Methanol—a colourless liquid that can be made from agricultural waste—has long been touted as a green alternative to fossil fuels. But it’s toxic and only has half the energy as the same volume of gasoline. Now, Chao-Jun Li and colleagues report they’ve created a potentially cheap way to use sunlight to convert methanol to ethanol, a more popular alternative fuel that’s less harmful and carries more energy.
Published on: 21 Feb 2019
McGill chemistry professors Hanadi Sleiman and Chao-Jun Li are among the six recipients of this year’s Killam Research Fellowships. The two-year fellowships, awarded to exceptional researchers working on groundbreaking projects of broad significance, are valued at $70,000 a year.
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Published on: 8 May 2018
A tiny bit of silver, combined with water and air, can convert aldehydes into acids efficiently -- instead of the classical methods using stoichiometric amounts of expensive or toxic metal oxidants, according to a new study by McGill University researchers.
Published on: 27 Mar 2015
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Published on: 15 Jul 2014
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Published on: 9 Jul 2014
Researchers from McGill University, RIKEN (The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Wako, Japan) and the Institute for Molecular Science (Okazaki, Japan) have discovered a way to make the widely used chemical process of hydrogenation more environmentally friendly – and less expensive.
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Published on: 27 Jun 2013