Agriculture News

A KY EPSCoR NSF grant (Research Infrastructure) has been awarded to Dr. Matthew Nee and Co-PI Dr. Bangbo Yan, both professors in Western Kentucky University’s Department of Chemistry, for the purchase of a new surface area analyzer, also called a Brunauer-Emmet-Teller (BET) analyzer. The instrument helps determine the porosity and surface area of any material and will be particularly useful for the PIs as they develop materials for which high surface area is important. Dr. Nee will be able to develop microporous polymer beads as substrates for the addition of photocatalysts, compounds that can break down water pollutants following a catastrophic spill, and Dr. Yan uses nanoporous materials because of their ability to both sequester and reduce carbon dioxide in the air. The Instrument will be housed in the Ogden College of Science and Engineering Shared Materials Lab and will be available for training and use by any researchers on campus.

Additionally, Dr. Yan along with Dr. Houyin Zhao, manager of the Thermal Analysis labs, have been awarded a one-year RIE grant from KY NSF EPSCoR for purchasing a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). The new DSC system will support research activities in material science at WKU. Dr. Yan has an NSF-funded research project to develop photocatalytic materials for carbon dioxide reduction and a WKU-funded project to study peptide metal-organic frameworks. The DSC is a valuable method for investigating the thermal behavior of the materials made in these projects. The new system will also be available as a grid resource to Kentucky and national collaborators. The ongoing collaboration with these companies and other Kentucky-based businesses with the new DSC will contribute to economic development in Kentucky.

Contact: Dr. Matthew Nee (matthew.nee@wku.edu) and Dr. Bangbo Yan (bangbo.yan@wku.edu