Research done by Indigenous scientists and researchers within Canada often isn't given the light it deserves, and the work done by Alex Veinot is not any different. Alex is a Vanier Scholar who completed his PhD in chemistry at Queen’s University, and is a member of the Mi’kmaq First Nations community. Throughout his academic career, Alex faced many hardships including moving away from home and adapting to life in a new city, but upon discovering his love for wet lab science, he says he truly found his second home in the lab.
Veinot’s research aims to develop new organic-on-metal technologies, which investigate the interaction between organic compounds and metals. In particular, his project looks at interactions between N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHC) on copper. Metals are used in science for many purposes, and the use of copper in particular is widespread due to its conductivity and cost effectiveness. One issue with copper, however, is its proclivity to oxidize, and the loss of usefulness that comes with oxidation. To tackle this issue, Veinot investigated a class of ligands known as NHCs in order to functionalize copper surfaces and prevent them from oxidizing.
The NHCs in question are formed from benzimidazolium hydrogen carbonate salts, and have the ability to bind to copper directly via a carbon copper bond (Figure 1). This was their primary goal, however, they also found that the NHCs could bind to oxide surfaces previously formed on copper and remove all traces of copper oxide, leaving behind a “clean” copper(0) surface. Putting this all together, they found a method to turn copper oxide coated metals into pure copper, immediately followed by functionalizing the copper(0) with NHCs. This results in a copper metal that, due to NHC functionalization, is no longer susceptible to oxidation and the production of copper oxide.
This is as good as its sounds, as the NHCs act as a monolayer that guarantees the stability of the copper. Copper is a highly sought after metal to use due to its excellent conductivity and its low cost, and they hope that this will extend the use of copper in current organic-on-metal devices, as it negates the potential of oxide formation. Veinot and his team believe that this method will also work for a variety of other reactive metals that have limited uses due to their ability to oxidize (such as silver), and will provide opportunities to replace expensive metals such as gold with more abundant metals.
Figure 1: The new C-Cu conjugate that is formed upon the reaction of NHC with copper surfaces. This prevents the copper from oxidizing in the future.
Veinot’s story and success are inspiring, and he is eager to share his story - as he should be! He has spoken at several universities detailing his experiences as an Indigenous student, and he wants to help remove the barriers he faced to make his path easier to follow for students in the future. His story has inspired many, including Queen’s University, who has vowed to put more effort into supporting Indigenous students seeking graduate studies.
The finding of this work has been published in Chemistry Europe: Veinot, A. J.; Al-Rashed, A.; Daniel Padmos, J.; Singh, I; Lee, D. S.; Narouz, M. R; Lummis, P. A.; Baddeley, C. J.; Crudden, C. M.; Hugh Horton, J. N-Heterocyclic Carbenes Reduce and Functionalize Copper Oxide Surfaces in One Pot. Chem. Eur. J. 2020, 26(50), 11431-11434.