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Princeton’s Paul Chirik Awarded $1M for Green Chemistry Research
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
July 21, 2022
Princeton Chemistry’s Paul Chirik is among the first chemists in the nation to receive funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation’s new “exploration phase” grants in support of green chemistry.
Once considered an oxymoron, green chemistry has enjoyed a new vigor in recent years as chemists take up the banner to find chemical solutions for everything from closed-loop recycling to the replacement of toxic catalysts in industrial processes …
Chirik Lab Synthesizes Ammonia from N2-Derived Nitride
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
March 24, 2022
The Chirik Lab reports room-temperature, photocatalytic ammonia synthesis from a N2-derived terminal molybdenum nitride, using photodriven, proton-coupled electron transfer that allows for H2 as the terminal reductant. This has not been accomplished before.
Nature Synthesis, “Ammonia synthesis by photocatalytic hydrogenation of a N2-derived molybdenum nitride,” March 24, 2022
Building on a 2021 Nature Chemistry proof-of-concept paper in which the Chirik Lab reported that the irradiation of iridium hydride complexes with visible light enabled formation of weak X-H bonds, lead author Sangmin Kim took the strategy to the next level, synthesizing ammonia from the catalytic hydrogenation of the N2-derived nitride for the first time by using a molybdenum nitride compound …
Chirik Leads Princeton Team in DOE Upcycling Project
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
September 13, 2021
The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded new funding to a team of Princeton chemists and engineers led by Paul Chirik as part of its investment in national technology solutions to reduce plastic waste.
The Chirik team received funding for their project “Chemically Recyclable Polyolefins,” which seeks to expand foundational research on a polyolefin Chirik discovered earlier this year called oligocyclobutane …
Princeton Chemists Discover a Key to Greener Food Production
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
June 30, 2021
One of the main goals before scientists today is de-coupling food production from carbon. In part, this means finding a way to produce fertilizer through carbon-free ammonia synthesis. Can it be done without Haber-Bosch?
Paul Chirik has taken an important step towards this possibility with a unique, fundamental approach to the synthesis of chemical bonds. He and the researchers in his lab use visible light to drive the formation of weak element-hydrogen bonds, which lie at the heart of the challenge because they are so difficult to make ….
Interview with Paul Chirik: Discovery by the Chirik Group that may Revolutionize Plastics Recycling
By Mary Cummings-Jordan
WHYY Radio Times Regional Roundup
February 22, 2021
In this WHYY Radio Times Regional Roundup interview by Mary Cummings-Jordan, Paul Chirik discusses the discovery by the Chirik Group of a new molecule, (1,n’-divinyl)oligocyclobutane, informally referred to as “the polymer of squares,” that may prove to be a game-changer in the recycling of plastics.
Chirik Discovers “Transformative” Route to Recyclable Plastics
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
January 25, 2021
As the planet’s burden of rubber and plastic rises unabated, scientists look to the promise of closed-loop recycling to reduce trash. Researchers from Princeton University’s Department of Chemistry have discovered a potentially game-changing new molecule with vast implications for fulfilling that promise.
A team of scientists led by Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, reports in Nature Chemistry that this molecule connects in a very unusual way: as a repeating sequence of squares, which allows the process to go backwards under certain conditions. In other words, the molecule can be “zipped up” to make a new polymer for use in plastic, and then unzipped — depolymerized — back to its pristine state, ready to be used again …
Chirik Wins ACS Catalysis Award
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
August 20, 2020
Paul Chirik, the Edwards S. Sanford Professor of Chemistry, has received the Gabor A. Somorjai Award for Creative Research in Catalysis, one of 60 national awards administered this month by the American Chemical Society (ACS) for 2021.
The Somorjai Award recognizes outstanding theoretical, experimental, or developmental research resulting in the advancement of understanding or application of catalysis. It was established by the ACS Board of Directors in 2002, and is supported by the Gabor A. and Judith K. Somorjai Endowment Fund …
Presidential Postdoc Fellow to Join Chirik Lab
By Wendy Plump
Department of Chemistry
May 26, 2020
The Department of Chemistry is pleased to announce that Jose Roque has been awarded a Presidential Postdoctoral Research Fellowship, one of sixteen such fellowships awarded annually throughout Princeton University in disciplines spanning the sciences and humanities. Roque will join the Chirik Group.
Roque is completing his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley, College of Chemistry this spring under Richmond Sarpong, who earned his own Ph.D. at Princeton in ‘00 under Martin Semmelhack. An organic chemist who works in natural product total synthesis and reaction development, Roque anticipates initiating his research here in September.
A Chemist Comes Very Close to a Midas Touch
By Hillary Rosner
Oct. 15, 2012
In a lab in Princeton University’s ultra-sleek chemistry building, researchers toil in a modern-day hunt for an elusive power: alchemy.
Throughout the centuries, alchemists tried in vain to transform common metals like iron and lead into precious ones like gold or platinum. Today, Paul Chirik, a professor of chemistry at Princeton, has managed a new twist on the timeworn pursuit …
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