News

Prof. N. Gathergood is pleased to announce that the location of the 4th EuGSC will be Tarragona, Spain. Chair of the 4th EuGSC will be Prof. Arjan Kleij from the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Institute of Chemical Research of Catalonia (ICIQ), The Barcelona Institute of Science & Technology. The date has been confirmed as 22-25th September 2019 and further details will follow. Prof. Gathergood is the President of the EuCheMS Division of Green and Sustainable Chemistry and member of the 4th EuGSC Scientific Advisory Committee.

http://www.euchems.eu/divisions/green-and-sustainable-chemistry-2/news/

The Union of Concerned Scientists and 1700 well reputed scientists across the globe published the famous declaration entitled “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity” in the year 1992. This declaration was also signed by most of living Nobel laureates in the sciences of the time. Ripple et al., 2017 and a total of 15,364 scientists from 184 countries (who participated this time as a co-signatory) thought back at their warning and assessed the human response index over the last quarter century on the 25th anniversary of that famous deceleration. This 25-year update under heading “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity: A Second Notice” has been published in BioScience (Ripple et al., 2017, BioScience, Volume 67, Issue 12, 1 December 2017, Pages 1026–1028, https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/bix125).

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta, Senior Research Scientist, ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia is one of the co-signatory of this declaration made in 2017. As a part of this declaration, Dr. Gupta was interviewed on TV3 ESTONIA together with Professor Nicholas Gathergood, ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia about their views on the declaration 2017 on Warning to Humanity. Here is the link to the story covered by Ms. Marie-Helene Sarapuu, TV3 reporter (http://uudised.tv3.ee/eesti/uudis/2017/11/19/15-000-teadlast-hoiatasid-inimkonda-katastroofi-eest).

Green profiling of aprotic versus protic ionic liquids: Synthesis and microbial toxicity of analogous structures

Joshua E.S.J. Reid, Hannah Prydderch, Marcel Spulak, Seishi Shimizu, Adam J. Walker, Nicholas Gathergood

Sustainable Chemistry and Pharmacy, Volume 7, March 2018, Pages 17–26.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scp.2017.11.001

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1WAZ38MwAmUW47 (a personalized URL providing free access
to article; link is active before January 25, 2018)

How does the variation in the ionic nature of ionic liquids (ILs) affect their antimicrobial properties? To answer this question with a direct connection to the molecular structure of ILs is integral for the design of new task specific ILs. The effect of ionic nature can be investigated through a comparison between analogous aprotic and protic ILs. However, while there have been extensive studies on the toxicology of both aprotic and protic ILs, the number of different structures and procedures employed makes quantitative comparison impossible. To address this, a series of analogous N,N,N-trimethylethanolammonium (cholinium) derived aprotic ILs (AILs) and N,N-dimethylethanolammonium derived protic ILs (PILs) with acetate, hexanoate, d,l-mandelate and 3-ethoxypropionate anions were prepared and characterised. All ILs were subsequently screened for antimicrobial activity against eight bacterial and twelve fungi strains. From the antimicrobial activity screening, little difference was found between the toxicities of AILs and PILs with shorter chains terminating in hydroxyl functional groups (e.g cholinium hexanoate and N,N-dimethylethanolammonium hexanoate). Variations between anion structure demonstrated slightly higher toxicities for more lipophilic anions. Antimicrobial activities were found to significantly increase for ILs with a long ether chain functional groups in the cation, due to the enhanced surfactant properties of these long chain cations. The importance of toxicity screening of analogous series of AILs and PILs as part of a future comprehensive biodegradation analysis has also been proposed based on postulated IL breakdown pathways.

Prof. Gathergood and Dr. Auvart participated in the The WIDENING CONFERENCE: Towards the Creation of a Widening Community" 8 November 2017, Brussels. Contributed to panel discussions from the ERA Chair perspective.

Prof. Gathergood presented at the Society for Applied Microbiology conference in London ‘Antimicrobial resistance, Meeting the Challenge’ in November. He gave the talk ‘Biodegradation of antibiotics: Structure-activity relationship studies for primary elimination through mineralisation’

Dr. Omar Parve have had the seminar in Tartu University 06.11.17 with collaborators.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev has joined Editorial Board of Frontiers in Chemistry (IF 3.994) as a Review Editor of Supramolecular Chemistry section, to launch in December, 2017.

Prof. Gathergood attended the International School of Estonia AGM in his role as member of the Board of Governors.

Prof. Gathergood met with Merlin Fox to discuss the Sustainable Chemistry book series published by World Scientific Publishing. As Series Editor, book proposals for 2018/2019 were evaluated and are in the process of being commissioned.

Visiting PhD student Toshikee YADAV has successfully defended her PhD thesis.

Viva was held on 24 November 2017 at her home institution, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University in Raipur (Chhattisgarh, India).

All our team congratulate Toshikee and her supervisor Prof. Kallol K. Ghosh, and wish new research accomplishments and plenty of interesting results. We are looking forward to continuing our fruitful collaboration. 

Prof. N. Gathergood presented a plenary talk "Safer Chemicals: Reducing toxicity and improving biodegradation" at the 3rd EuCheMS Congress on Green and Sustainable Chemistry on the 3-6th Sept 2017. The list of plenary speakers included Prof. J. Clark FRS, Prof. P. Anastas and Prof. B. Feringa (recipient of 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry).

PhD students Grete Raba and Estelle Silm along with Dr. Yevgen Karpichev have attended the Summer School on Sustainable Chemistry for Sustainable Development (S3C) at Leuphana University, Germany on 25-29 September, 2017. The participation in the event devoted to the latest developments of the concepts of sustainable chemistry and chemicals management as a part of the ERA Chair of Green Chemistry activities for student and staff training, participation in the UNESCO UNITWIN GREENOMIcS network, and continuous bilateral collaboration with Institute of Sustainable and Environmental Chemistry of Leuphana University.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev participated in the 2nd Managing Committee meeting of CHAOS (COST Action CA15106) in Bath, UK to discuss the implementations of the current goals of one of the largest COST Actions with continuously increasing budget and present the results of the 1st Summer Training School organized in Tallinn in 24-29 August, 2017.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev was invited to join as an Associated Partner to the DAIMON (Decision Aid for Marine Munitions) network, an international project consisting of partners from about 10 European countries and cooperating experts worldwide, united by the goal to solve the problem of underwater munitions, partly funded by the EU INTERREG Baltic Sea Region Programme 2014-2020. Dr. Karpichev was invited to attend the International Workshop on CWA dedicated to 20th Anniversary of the Chemical Weapons Convention in December 2017 and the regular DAIMON meeting in February 2018 (both are in Helsinki).

PhD student Dewi Kurnianingsih Arum was participating as a presenter at IConMNS (International Conference on Mathematics and Natural Sciences 2017) which is held by Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha, Indonesia on September 6-7, 2017.

Dr. Omar Parve visited in 16.10.2017 his partners in Tartu for collaboration and seminar.

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta was invited by Southwest University for Science and Technology, China to discuss about the international academic and research cooperation.

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta attended the Annual Meeting of European Mycological Association at Ohrid, Macedonia from 1st October to 5th October.

Prof. Gathergood presented ‘The Design Of Safer Chemicals: Are Mineralisable Compounds an Achievable Goal?’ as an invited lecturer at the Assessment for Planetary Boundaries for Chemical Pollution School for Young Scientists, in Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia, Moscow 1st-5th Oct. This event was organised by Prof. Natalia P. Tarasova, President of IUPAC and Director of Institute of Chemistry and Problems of Sustainable Development, Dmitry Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology of Russia.

Prof. Gathergood presented a plenary lecture at the 7th International Conference on Green Chemistry (IUPAC) in Moscow 2nd-5th October. Also in Moscow, Prof. Gathergood participated at the IUPAC

Interdivisional Committee on Green Chemistry for Sustainable Development (ICGCSD) as the EuCheMS Division of Green and Sustainable Chemistry representative. The role is to foster links between IUPAC and EuCheMS green chemistry communities.

Prof. Gathergood and Dr. Auvart were invited to participate in the The WIDENING CONFERENCE: Towards the Creation of a Widening Community" 8 November 2017, Brussels. Both have accepted the invitation.

International School of Estonia in Tallinn has invited the ERA Chair to contribute to a ’living library’ event as part of Science Day at the school on November 10th. Three members of the team, Nicholas Gathergood, Yevgen Karpichev and Oleksandra Mariichak have agreed to participate. The aim is to promote science to primary school students.

Prof. Gathergood was invited to present at the Society for Applied Microbiology conference in London ‘Antimicrobial resistance, Meeting the Challenge’ in November. He will give the talk ‘Biodegradation of antibiotics: Structure-activity relationship studies for primary elimination through mineralisation’

Dr. Dzmitry Kananovich, Dr. Yevgen Karpichev and Prof. Gathergood in cooperation with other TUTIC-Green members have organized a summer Training School in TUT. Training School was organised by ERA Chair on Green Chemistry in partnership with the COST Action CA15106 “C-H Activation in Organic Synthesis” (CHAOS) on August 22-25th 2017.

https://www.cost-chaos.org/training-schools

Prof. Gathergood gave a plenary lecture at the 2nd International Conference on Science and Science Education, at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Indonesia 30-31 August.

Dr. Omar Parve had a visit and seminar with collaboration partners (Dr. Lauri Vares, Dr. Ilme Liblikas etc.) in Tartu University (August 2017).

Prof. Nicholas Gathergood, Dr. Mohammed Hasan and Grete Raba were invited speakers and seminar trainers on Training School “C-H Activation in Organic Synthesis” (CHAOS) in Tallinn, Estonia.

PhD student Estelle Silm, visiting students Oleksandra Mariichak and Toshikee Yadav participated in Training School C-H Activation in Organic Synthesis (CHAOS) in Tallinn, Estonia 22-25 August 2017. PhD student Dewi Kurnianingsih Arum has joined Summer School (Immuonology and phatogenesis) from August 21 - August 31 in Institut Teknologi Bandung, Indonesia, and given a talk and poster at 2nd International Conference on Science and Science Education, at Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana, Salatiga, Indonesia (30-31 August.).

Dr. Kananovich attended 1) 18th Tetrahedron Symposium, 27-30 June 2017, Hungary, Budapest (poster session); 2) 20th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry, 2-6 July 2017, Cologne, Germany (poster session); 3) 9th EuChemMS Young Investigator Workshop, 7-9 July 2017, Bergisch Gladbach, Germany (speaker)

Dr. Iuriy Ermolovich attended 1) 18th Tetrahedron Symposium, 27-30 June 2017, Hungary, Budapest (poster session); 2) 20th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry, 2-6 July 2017, Cologne, Germany (poster session);

Dr. Karpichev attended 7th International Colloids Conference in Sitges, Spain, to present a poster communication “Biodegradation studies of a series of novel L-phenylalanine derived surface active ionic liquids by a modified closed bottle test. and an oral talk “Aggregation properties and antimicrobial activity of biodegradable L-phenylalanine derived surface active ionic liquids”.

Dr. Kapitanov attended 20th European Symposium on Organic Chemistry, 2-6 July 2017, Cologne, Germany (poster session).

PhD student Estelle Silm participated in 20th European Symposium of Organic Chemistry 2017 (ESOC 2017) in Cologne, Germany in 2-6 July. (poster)

Prof. Gathergood gave a keynote invited talk "Atom Economy, Biodegradation, Catalysis and Green Toxicology: Tools for the Delivery of Green Chemistry based on Ionic Liquids" at the ISCC Oslo conference 16th International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment in Oslo, 18-22nd June. The talk is also available as a podcast, as part of the conference outreach initiatives.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev is a key speaker at the IX International Conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse (ICKT-9), 4-9 June 2017, Kyiv (Ukraine).

Results of Dr. Illia Kapitanov, Oleksandra Mariichak and Maxime Naudé was presented at the IX International Conference in chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse (ICKT-9), 4-9 June 2017, Kyiv (Ukraine), as three poster reports.

Prof. Gathergood is a member of the scientific advisory board for the International Workshop on the Future of Biorefineries in Europe that will be held 25-27 May 2017, in Gela, Sicily, Italy. He is also an invited speaker.

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta visited Institute of Food Science and Technology (IFST), Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), Beijing, China. He has been awarded with International Supervisorship (Biotechnology) of IFST by Director General, IFST, CAAS, Beijing, China.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev attended two seminars and discussions with French partners on the preparation of H2020 project, and bilateral programs took place at University of Toulouse (3 April) and University Aix-Marseille (4-5 April).

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev was invited by Organizing Committee of 7th Colloid Conference (to be held June 18-21 in Spain) to give a prestigious Showcase Oral slots presentation, after his communication was qualified by the Scientific Committee to be in the top 10%

Prof. Gathergood was an invited speaker at Tartu University, Estonia on 5th April.

Dr. Yevgen Karpichev to give a talk at 9th International Conference in Chemistry Kyiv-Toulouse in Kiev, Ukraine in June 2017. Three more poster communications of the recent work of the Chair by Illia Kapitanov, Maxime Naude, and Oleksandra Mariichak will be presented.

Prof. Gathergood is an invited plenary speak at the 3rd EuCheMS Congress on Green and Sustainable Chemistry on the 3-6th Sept 2017. The list of plenary speakers includes Prof. J. Clark FRS, Prof. P. Anastas and Prof. B. Feringa (recipient of 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry).

https://www.york.ac.uk/chemistry/research/green/events/3eugsc/

Prof. Gathergood is an invited speaker at the 2nd Green and Sustainable Chemistry Conference, Berlin 14-17th May and 16th International Conference on Chemistry and the Environment in Oslo, Norway, 2017 18-22nd June.

Prof. Gathergood (co-author, with attendee Prof. Kummerer) 8th International Conference on Green and Sustainable Chemistry in Melbourne, AUS, 23-26th July, abstract submitted. 

Prof. Gathergood is an invited speaker at SfAM/RSC/Pharmaceutical Association meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), November 23-24, in London.

Dr. Dzmitrii Kananovich invited as Estonian representative for the EuCHeMS Division of Organic Chemistry Young Investigator Workshop, 6-8th July hosted by the University of Cologne, Germany.

Dr. Vijai Kumar Gupta invited as 'Plenary Speaker' for “5th Biotechnology Symposium 2017 to be held on November 15-16, 2017 at Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia, organized by the Biotechnology Research Institute, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia.

Jacqueline Kruis is visiting from Colorado, U.S.A. to assist with research in the molecular biology laboratory. She will be with our group from May through July, 2017.

She received her Bachelor's degree in human biology from Indiana University Bloomington in 2013. She was then employed at a toxicology laboratory management company in Durango, Colorado. There, she worked as a laboratory technician and supervised four active toxicology laboratories.

Jacqueline will be assisting mainly in cell culture to create stable cell lines to test the effects of several synthetic morphine derivatives on the four different opioid receptors utilizing a firefly luciferase assay.

The 2017 Steering Committee meeting will be held in the Energy Centre, MEKTORY on the Tuesday 28th March. Confirmed external international experts from the UK, Prof. Peter Licence and Dr Janet Scott, and from Spain Prof. Miguel Delaguardia are attending.

As the world works towards meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the needs of the future, this series presents comprehensive books from leaders in the field of green and sustainable chemistry. The volumes will offer an excellent source of information for professional researchers in academia and industry, and postgraduate students across the multiple disciplines involved.

http://www.worldscientific.com/series/suschem

Ms. Toshikee Yadav is a PhD student from School of Studies in Chemistry, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University, Raipur, Chhattisgarh, India. She has been awarded with DoraPlus scholarship for the period of May-September 2017. She is going to join our group by the end of April to study properties of the surface active ionic liquids and their environmentally friendly applications.

Ms.Toshikee Yaday has an experience in solubilization of hydrophobic organic compounds and interaction of surfactants with pharmaceutical compounds. Her recent contributions on surfactant mediated degradation of carcinogenic pollutants supports the research activities of the Green Chemistry Chair in the field of sustainable surfactants and formulation of decontaminated systems.

This project is a part of ongoing collaboration between the Chair of Green Chemistry and the research team Prof. Kallol K. Ghosh, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla University

Maxime NAUDE, a third-year chemistry bachelor student from University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), FRANCE.

He joined ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, TUT as a research engineer for one-semester traineeship from February to July, 2017.

In these six months, he is expected to gain more experience in the field of designing and extensive colloid studies of biodegradable surface-active ionic liquids.

Mr. NAUDE speaks French, Spanish, and English and he is highly interested in mastering new methods and approaches in chemistry, and wants to pursue them during his Master studies.

This internship is a part of the recently installed collaboration between ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, TUT and the team of Prof. S. Bouqillon, URCA

Oleksandra Mariichak is a PhD student from Vasyl Stus Donetsk National University, Vinnytsia, Ukraine.

She has been awarded with Dora Plus scholarship to join ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, TUT as Visiting PhD student for the period of January – May 2017. She will be involved in the development of novel amphiphilic metal ligands and their complexes with earth-abundant metals as prospective metallosurfactants for “green” micellar-catalytic processes.

Her scientific background is connected with inorganic chemistry of polyoxometalates (polyoxotungstates, in essence) that is expected to support research activities of the Green Chemistry Chair in the field of sustainable surfactants and metal sustainability.

• Degradation of Organophosphate Pesticides Using Pyridinium Based Functional Surfactants
• Rahul Sharma, Bhanushree Gupta, Toshikee Yadav, Srishti Sinha, Arvind Kumar, Yevgen Karpichev*, Nicholas Gathergood, Jan Marek, Kamil Kuca, Kallol K. Ghosh*.
• Degradation of Organophosphate Pesticides Using Pyridinium Based Functional Surfactants
• ACS Sustainable Chemistry and Engineering, 2016, 4 (12), pp 6962–6973
• Publication date: October 7, 2016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acssuschemeng.6b01878

The enhancement of environmental quality is one of the key principles of sustainable agriculture which points lesser use of synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers. Green chemistry offers an array of innovative approaches to develop safe and efficient methods of its chemical transformation towards nontoxic readily biodegradable products under mild conditions. The development of new strategies for chemical decontamination of organophosphorus nerve agents and pesticides is an issue of immediate concern. Oximes have been demonstrated to find an application as functionalized organized molecular systems. In this study, kinetic investigations have been explored to estimate the nucleophilic efficiency of oxime-functionalized pyridinium surfactants 3-hydroxyiminomethyl-1-alkylpyridinium bromide (alkyl=CnH2n+1, n=10, 12, 14, 16) and 4-hydroxyiminomethyl-1-alkylpyridinium bromide (alkyl=CnH2n+1, n=10, 12) for the hydrolysis of pesticides paraoxon (NPDEP) and methyl paraoxon (NPDMP) in the mixed micelles with conventional cationic surfactants CPB, CTAB and CDMEAB. Comprehensive study of surface properties and acid-base equilibria of micellar system composed by (i) functionalized surfactants and (ii) mixed functionalized / conventional cationic micelles have been carried out. pKa of studied nucleophiles in the presence of surfactants has also been monitored. Effect of pH, co-micellar effect of other surfactants and alkyl chain length of functionalized surfactants has been monitored on the observed rate constants of cleavage of studied organophosphate.

Three PhD students joined the Green Chemistry Chair:

• Grete Raba (supervisors prof. Nicholas Gathergood and prof. Raivo Vilu);
• Estelle Silm (supervisors prof. Nicholas Gathergood and prof. Tõnis Kanger);
• Dewi Kurnianingsih Arum Kusuma Hastuti (supervisors prof. Nicholas Gathergood and KBFI Research Professor Anne Kahru)

Aizhamal Subanbekova is a second year chemistry bachelor student from Riga Technical University, Riga, Latvia.

She has won a Erasmus+ Summer Intern scholarship for the year 2016. Subsequently, she joined ERA Chair of Green Chemistry, TUT as Summer Intern for the period of 1^st July to 30^th August 2016. In this two months she is expected to gain a greater understanding of synthetic research in our lab.

She originally is from Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan and can speak Kyrgyz, Russian and English fluently. Her academic skills are good and she is keenly interested in chemistry and wants to pursue it as career.