By Dr. Russell R. Chianelli

Professor of Chemistry, Materials and Environmental Science and Engineering

Director of the Materials Research and Technology Institute

University of Texas at El Paso

Background: Asphaltenes are the molecular remnants of the original biomass that formed our petroleum energy resources. As crude supplies become heavier asphaltenes become more abundant and the barrel of oil contains less of the mid-distillates required by the refiner to make diesel and gasoline liquid transportation fuels that are most profitable. The asphaltenes are either burned for process heat or turned in to asphalt for road paving. Hydroconversion of asphaltenes is also possible but requires very high-pressure hydrogen (> 2000 psi) and a catalyst to convert to mid-distillate. However, we believe that the fundamental chemistry of the asphaltene predicts that it can be made into higher value materials with interesting solid state properties and in the future asphaltenes will be too valuable to burn.
The Chemistry of Asphaltenes: Asphaltenes are complex micellular structures. Synthetic asphaltenes have been produced with novel chemistry that shows that they are very stable and can self-assemble . Asphaltenes can be reacted with polymers or inorganic materials to form hybrid materials. Asphaltenes are also photo-reactive allowing another reactivity route and creating materials with virtually infinitely variable properties. It is these hybrid materials that are also a new class of hybrid materials that can form the basis many other novel materials.
Asphaltenes as “Black Dyes” for Photovoltaic Cells: Recently, an article entitled “A metal-free “black dye” for panchromatic dye-sensitized solar cells “ appeared . The paper describes the construction of a photovoltaic cell using porphyrin and aromatic polymeric type molecules to make metal free (ruthenium in particular) solar cells. These types of molecules are found in natural asphaltenes and thus it makes sense to test the natural materials. Initial tests are encouraging and in progress. It cannot be underestimated the dramatic improvement in cost reduction that can be achieved in utilizing this natural material which is now used to pave roads!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
PSCI 208, at 4:30 pm
Refreshments will be se.rved

At Physics we care about our students and are proud of the research opportunities we  offer them. That is why we are excited with the success of Dr. Cristian Botez' Crystal Structure Analysis Undergraduate Laboratory. During the past year, this laboratory has offered access to research opportunities  for seven undergraduate students, five of whom received stipends as high as $3,500 for two months of research. These stipends came from external financial support from the Research Corporation (Cottrell College Science Award) and the Texas Higher Education Coordination Board (Norman Hackerman Award). Out of the seven undergraduate students who carried out research on Dr. Botez' lab, six are Hispanic and four are women, a clear indication of the broad impact of his lab. The "Crystal Structure Analysis Undergraduate Laboratory”  is already producing results in terms of our students’ careers: for example, Laura Tseng was admitted to UT Austin, Antony Adair was admitted to the Rice University's Ph.D. in Physics program, and David Carbajal will participate next week in experiments at the Manuel Lujan Jr. Neutron Scattering Center at Los Alamos National Lab., one of the best neutron scattering facilities in the world. We are very happy for our students' accomplishments and congratulate Dr. Botez for his commitment to student research mentoring.