SPINNING A CARBON NEUTRAL FUTURE

Fulbright Future Scholar Zoe Gardner is Strengthening Australian-American Bonds Through Green Chemistry

As a PhD student in the Raston Lab at Flinders University I spend a lot of time imagining I am a little molecule moving around very fast as I observe clear liquid spin around in a rotating test tube.

The world rushes by in a blur and I feel myself being tumbled in a high-speed waterslide spiralling down towards a violent crash on the surface, trembling as I collide in activation zones again and again, breaking old bonds and forging new ones.

The true nature of chemistry is often unseen, which is fascinating and inspires my imagination. As I write this, the concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere is at 412 ppm and is rising. Although we cannot see the carbon dioxide and methane floating up into our atmosphere, the resulting climate change is an ever-pressing challenge moving forward for our planet.

Into The Vortex

In the Raston Lab, under the guidance of Professor Colin Raston, we look at how we can use chemistry to tackle this big, often invisible, challenge. The technology we use to do this is called a Vortex Fluidic Device (VFD) – imagine a test tube that is rotating at speeds of up to 9000 rotations per minute. Professor Raston developed this technology in 2013 and over the last decade members of group have established diverse applications for the VFD in medical and pharmaceutical research, controlling chemical reactivity, food processing among others.

The overarching goal of the work we do is to improve chemical production, making it cleaner, greener, and cheaper. In green chemistry this can be termed ‘benign by design’.

The VFD is a type of flow processing or microfluidic reactor, which is a term that can be given to processing which occurs in thin films. Other types of reactors which occur under flow are channel-based fluidics such as ‘lab-on-a chip’ devices, and the ‘spinning disc’ reactor.

Compared to conventional batch processing, often using the ubiquitous round-bottom flask, microfluidic processing has the advantages of increased heat transfer and increased collisions between molecules. Processing under flow is also high in ‘green chemistry’ metrics – through reducing reactants required, increasing yield and the ability to monitor reactions in real-time.

The VFD, which processes liquid solutions at a 45° angle has several advantages over other microfluidic devices through reducing clogging, increasing collisions, and beyond diffusion control processing. It is an exciting time to be a researcher on the VFD in the Raston group as each year we learn more about patterns in the fluid flow that enable us to control the chemistry.

Chemistry Connections In Cali

My Fulbright research in America at University of California Irvine (UCI) with Professor Greg Weiss goes back to the core of what drew me to research which is the chance to make a difference to society through contributing to reducing emissions. Using the VFD we hope to demonstrate a method to close the carbon cycle loop, by reusing waste carbon dioxide gas and carboxylic acids as chemical feedstocks.

My project grows on previous collaboration between the two lab groups whichwon a 2015 IgNobel Prize for ‘unboiling an egg’.

This essentially involved “refolding” proteins using the VFD, which is quite an incredible process, and invaluable for certain applications in the pharmaceutical industry.

Previous work involving group member Dr Xuan Luo, now a Postdoc in the Raston group, and Dr Joshua Britton, showed the acceleration of a variety of other enzymatic reactions using the VFD. My project will build upon their work using a patented engineered enzyme prepared in the Weiss Lab, as well as adding new understanding into how magnetic fields affect fluid flow in the VFD – a big part of my PhD.

At UCI, I hope to achieve a proof-ofconcept demonstrating a recycling system for carbon in the VFD. A key part of the research will involve investigating possible methods to optimise the experiment through systematic testing with the aim to enhance the enzymatic activity of this process in the VFD.

Ultimately the end goal is an industriallycompetitive process. This project is at an opportune time as we collectively work towards sustainable solutions to climate change so that future generations may experience the world free from the devastating consequences of global warming and environmental degradation.

- Zoe Gardner

ZOE GARDNER

is a PhD researcher at Flinders University who is passionate about how green chemistry techniques can be used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As a Fulbright Scholar, Zoe will work with her collaborators to research a process for enzymes to break down waste chemicals using a cutting-edge technology, the vortex fluidic device, as well as specific enzymes which have been enhanced and prepared for this purpose. In the future Zoe hopes that her research can contribute to closing the carbon loop in chemical processes and be part of a solution to one of the biggest challenges facing humanity today.