RASEI Fellow Niels Damrauer is part of a collaborative team that have developed a new light-driven C-F activation reaction, one that has the potential to help dismantle PFAS ‘forever chemicals’

Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, are synthetic compounds that have found widespread use in consumer products and industrial applications. Their water and grease resistant properties have been part of their attraction in their applications, but these are also the reason that they are now found practically everywhere in the environment, they are very difficult to decompose.

While many chemicals will decompose relatively quickly, studies have shown that PFAS are expected to stick around for up to 1000 years. While this durability is great in something like firefighting foams or non-stick cookware, it is not great when these compounds get into the environment.

This new article, published in Nature in November of 2024, describes the work of a collaborative team of theoretical and experimental chemists, who have developed a new photochemical reaction that could hold promise of speeding up the decomposition of PFAS. A recent highlight of this work, written by the graduate student and postdoctoral fellows who did the research, appeared in The Conversation.

Using a photocatalyst, that absorbs light to speed up a reaction, the researchers were able to ‘activate’ one of the carbon-fluorine bonds, one of the strongest bonds in organic chemistry. The photocatalyst absorbs light, transfers electrons to the fluorine containing molecules, which then breaks down the sturdy carbon-fluorine bond.

While this doesn’t decompose the whole molecule, it is essentially like finding a chink in the armor, it opens the door to degradation of the PFAS to harmless smaller molecules.

This study demonstrated this process on a small scale, and the researchers are looking at how to optimize this reaction so it is more robust and can be done on larger scales. This work is part of a National Science Foundation funded Center for Chemical Innovation called SuPRCat, a research community that will be looking at this challenge, among others.

If it is possible to break down these forever chemicals, it will help prevent these environmental pollutants being in our soil, rivers, and drinking water. Excited to see the next steps from the team!

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Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder Press Release

RASEI Director Seth Marder spoke at the 2024 VinFuture Sci-Tech Week and Awards Ceremony, where Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder Colleague Kristi Anseth was honored with the Special Prize for Women Innovators Award.

December 2024 – This week in Hanoi, Vietnam, the VinFuture Foundation hosted the 2024 Sci-Tech week and award Ceremony. This series of world-class events bring together leading scientists and experts from across a range of critical scientific fields, including materials science, artificial intelligence, air pollution and environmental studies. The capstone of the week is the Award Ceremony, recognizing scientists for their groundbreaking achievements that have significant societal impact. 

RASEI Director Seth Marder was an invited keynote speaker in the Materials for a Sustainable Future session. Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder colleague Kristi Anseth received the 2024 Women Innovators Award, recognized for the advancement in design of polymeric biomaterials and methods for biomedical applications. Kristi is a pioneer in the development of biomaterial cell culture systems, critical components in the regulation of tissue development, maintenance and regeneration. Her team has designed new materials that can be engineered for tissue regeneration and accelerate healing of disease states. This provides a foundation for the study of 4-D biology in vitro with responsive and synthetic biomaterials, regenerating tissues across the human body.

Congratulations Kristi!

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In early October of 2024, RASEI hosted the kickoff workshop for POSE, a new community being brought together to address some of the most critical challenges we face to do with plastics and polymers.

Polymer Solutions for the Environment, or POSE, seeks to establish a Center that will bring together expertise around the development of a circular polymer economy.

Plastics and polymers are critical materials in the modern age, forming the building blocks of everything from electronics to packaging, but this versatility comes with a cost, namely the waste and infiltration of the environment by microplastics.

This workshop brought together thought leaders in the polymer sector, from a cross section of academic, national lab and industrial organizations. The goal was to explore how best the POSE community can build a program that complements existing efforts in the field to drive the science and policy forward.

Three areas of focus were discussed, including the development of a circular polymer economy, the development of polymers that are needed for a just clean energy transition, and the integration of the science and technology research with policy, economics and social sciences.

It was a great meeting with more than 60 participants who came together to discuss ideas, present their research and approaches, and help shape the goals and directions of this nascent community. 

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Polymer Solutions for the Environment Fall 2024 Workshop

Monday October 7, 2024 | 9:00 AM - 4:30 PM

Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder, East Campus, SEEC Building C120

Join us at this kick-off workshop for the Polymer Solutions for the Environment initiative. This will be held at Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder, on the East Campus in the SEEC Building, Room C120 on Monday October 7, 2024. This one-day workshop brings together key collaborators and stakeholders from across the region, with a focus on discussing and developing a roadmap for POSE. Talks will have a spotlight on how POSE can join and amplify the existing regional community of researchers in tackling Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ's most pressing sustainability challenges and exploring the role of polymer science in addressing these issues. We plan to define the goals, milestones, and target research areas for POSE.

Register now for this event and we will send along more details about agenda and logistics as they are confirmed. 

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The Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder New Frontiers Grant Program was launched in 2024. The program is designed to foster visionary groundbreaking, interdisciplinary research projects that have potential for high impact. This could include significant advances in knowledge, problem-solving or innovation that can build to new paradigms of understanding.

New Frontiers Grant Program

2024 Award Announcement

A central column of this program is to stimulate the development of new strengths at Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder, driven by researchers thinking across disciplines and developing methods to work together to tackle complex and impactful research challenges.

Twenty-six teams submitted collaborative proposals were submitted to this program earlier this year and four projects were selected as winners of planning grants, two of which involved RASEI Fellows.

New Frontiers in Bio-Integrated Organic Computing & Low-Energy Innovative Carbon-based Manufacturing, or BIO-CLIC, led by RASEI Fellow Jeff Cameron and engaging a team across four Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder departments and collaborators from NREL, will explore challenges in computational efficiency by investigating unconventional computing approaches that employ renewable sources and carbon fixation processes.

Polymers for a Sustainable Earth, or POSE, led by Wei Zhang from the Department of Chemistry and involving RASEI Fellows Dan Kaffine, Kat Knauer, Oana Luca, Seth Marder, Srinivas Parinandi, Mike Toney, and Terri Walters, brings together collaborators from six Å·ÃÀ¿Ú±¬ÊÓƵ Boulder departments and NREL. POSE will foster a community to facilitate extramural research and funding at a scale to effectively address the issue of plastic pollution and new, sustainable methods to synthesize, reuse, and recycle polymers.

The four teams were chosen following 14 in-person pitches, where the teams outlined how their proposed work addresses important societal problems through adopting collaborative interdisciplinary approaches. The four teams will now use the next year to advance their proposals, build out the team and conduct initial investigations on how to take things forward. The teams will then compete for the single Launch Phase Grant of $200k, which will be awarded in June 2025.

Congratulations to the teams! We look forward to seeing your progress over the next year!

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