This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) program Professor John C. Ford and colleague Jaeju Ko from Indiana University of Pennsylvania will acquire a high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) instrument equipped with an automatic injector and pulsed amperometric detectors. The instrument will be used to support research activities such as kinetic studies of celluloses and cyclodrextrins as well as surface chemistry of diamond. Results of these studies will be also be used in computational studies of enzyme active-sites.
An HPLC system will allow separation of mixtures of substances into individual components to facilitate their study by analyzing the characteristic traces provided by the interaction of such substances. The technique employs liquid samples which are run through separation columns at high pressure. This research will have a significant impact in a number of areas, especially organic chemistry, materials chemistry and biochemistry. This instrument will be an integral part of teaching as well as research.
Carbon dioxide and biomass are the most reasonable candidates to replace petroleum as a future resource to provide plastics, pharmaceuticals, and combustible fuels. Both are renewable, being major recycled components of the carbon cycle. Biomass, i.e., plant-derived materials, has shown great promise as a source for the production of many chemical products, including plastics and drugs. However, its potential to replace gasoline is still largely unrealized due to scientific, technological, and economic issues. One such issue is developing economic methods to convert cellulose, the major component of biomass, into simple sugars. One focus of our project was evaluating the ability of the fungus Trichoderma reesei to produce cellulose-digesting enzymes when grown on mixed waste paper. Figure 1 shows T. reesei growing on mixed waste paper, a combination of household packaging, letters, bills, and similar paper scrap. Cellulose-digesting enzymes are produced, although in lower amounts than when wood-pulp or agricultural wastes are used. Nonetheless, this may provide a route for rural communities to create a value-added product from a municipal recycling stream. However, the most important outcome of our project was the training it provided to our students. Figure 2 shows a group meeting from 2011, with seven students attending. During the three-year project period, fourteen IUP undergraduates and one high-school student actively participated in individual research projects, yet sharing a common theme; presented their results at scientific meetings, and experienced the process of discovery. Five of the students shown are now in graduate school; two are employed.
