Andrew Grant
Dr. Grant is no longer taking graduate students
Biography
Discipline:
- Organic Chemistry
- Bioorganic Chemistry
- Redox-active Materials
Research Area:
- Development and Commercialization of Novel redox-active materials and their applications to gold mining, anti-viral PPE, organic batteries, water purification.
Publications
1) 鈥淪ynthesis and Surface Investigations of N-Substituted 2,5-Dithio-7-azabicyclo[2.2.1]heptanes on Gold Surfaces鈥 J. Phys. Chem. C, 116, 7886鈭7896 (2012).
2) "A Convenient One-step Synthesis of 1,4-Dithiin" Andrew S. Grant, Sara Faraji-Dana, Erin Graham, Journal of Sulfur Chemistry, 30(2), 135-136 (2009).
3) "Synthesis of a 'twisted' transition-state analogue of biotin", A.S. Grant, K. Chaudhary, L. Stewart, A. Peters, S. Delisle and A. Decken, Tetrahedron Letters, 45, 1777-1780 (2004).
4) "Bromination/Debromination of Cholesterol: A Self-Enquiry Based Lab involving Structure Elucidation, Reaction Mechanism and 1H NMR", A.S. Grant, D. Latimer, J. Chem. Ed. 80, 670-671 (2003).
5) 鈥淩edox-Active Materials, Processes, and Uses Thereof鈥 US Patent 11,851,444B2, 2023, Andrew S Grant, Travis Osmond, Kasis Environmental.
Education
BSc - Queen's University, Kingston, ON
PhD - University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
Teaching
Fall 2024
Chem 2111 - Organic Chemistry I
Chem 3131 - Bioorganic
Winter 2025
Chem 3111 - Organic Chemistry II
Chem 3121 - Intermediate Organic Chemistry
Dr Grant will not be teaching during the 25-26 academic year
Research
Over the years we have been interested in how the enzyme cofactor biotin functions. Our main focus has been to determine whether the sulfur atom in ring-B of biotin affects the chemistry taking place at N1 of ring-A. Our studies involved a combination of MO calculations, design and synthesis of biotin analogues, enzyme inhibition and physical organic studies on the synthesized analogues.
The work on biotin led us to design a novel sulfur-based polymer that has the potential to be a superconductor at liquid nitrogen temperatures. We have had several PostDocs work on this project, but to date, progress has been slow. We are looking for more funding.
--> The work on biotin also led to the discovery of a novel class of redox-active materials. We have patents on these materials in the US, Canada, and Europe. This is the main focus of the Group now.
--> Kasis Environmental was founded in 2015 for the purpose of bringing these materials to the marketplace.
These redox-active materials are easily made in one synthetic step from readily available materials (cellulose, silica gel, chitosan, polystyrene). We are exploring applications in 1) a greener process for gold recovery in gold mining 2) the development of anti-viral and anti-bacterial PPE, 3) their use in organic batteries, and 4) water purification processes.