The sunny side of chemistry at James Cook Uni

摘要

Crescente luce - 'Light ever increasing' - is the motto of James Cook University (JCU) in Tropical North Queensland, and this is exactly what the members of the Applied and Green Photochemistry group in Townsville are aiming for. With more than 300 days of sunshine, Townsville receives plenty of solar radiation that can be harvested to drive chemical reactions. JCU's location offers vast tropical biomass resources and attractive opportunities with local industries. The solar research activities of the group take advantage of these resources and span from the solar synthesis of valuable commodity chemicals and pharmaceuticals to the solar degradation of priority pollutants, for example pharmaceutical residues in hospital wastewater, pesticides in agriculture run-off water and aquaculture effluents.