First a patent, now a follow up article published in a prominent scientific journal—Postdoctoral Fellow and sessional instructor Dr. Dipesh Prema is getting a lot of attention for his plastics research in inorganic chemistry.

In December 2014, Prema was listed as the third inventor on a US patent: Imino carbene compounds and derivatives, and catalyst compositions made therefrom. Prema and his co-inventors synthesized new catalysts that can be applied to the manufacturing of plastic materials such as shopping bags and milk cartons. Prema worked on this project while at Oklahoma State University where he was synthesizing new catalysts in collaboration with chemical company Chevron Phillips.

According to Prema, “the long drawn out patent approval process was worth the wait.”

In March, his paper “‘Decarbonization’ of an Imino-N-heterocyclic Carbene Ligand via Triple Benzyl Migration from Hafnium” was published in Chemical Communications, a leading journal for the publication of urgent communications in the chemical sciences. The research was also featured in the April 6 edition of Chemical and Engineering News, which is the American Chemical Society’s official magazine. Read more…