SONOCHEMISTRY AND SONOCATALYSIS RESEARCH

If you believe in science, like I do, you believe that there are certain laws that are always obeyed . ~ Stephen Hawking

Sonochemistry is defined as the uses of power ultrasound in many different applications of science and technology including, catalysis, electrochemistry, environmental protection, materials science, food processing and therapy. Over the last few years industry has become increasingly drawn to sonochemistry because it provides a green and clean alternative to conventional technologies in all of these areas.

Sonochemistry, by virtue of its breadth, facilities cross disciplinary research and its application in the field of catalysis, specifically for challenging organic reactions is the focus of our research team.

Dr. Prince Nana AMANIAMPONG, MRSC

 

I am currently a Research Scientist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS), currently an ERC Starting Grant 2023 holder (Project ConCASM) and a 2020 ANR JCJC Research Grant holder (Project AminoSound). My research and career interests lie in using ULTRASOUNDS (either high or low frequencies) as an alternative unconventional activation tools in assisting catalytic reactions that are generally considered sluggish and challenging. My expertise covers the catalytic conversion of bio-based substrates into industrially relevant platform and commodity chemicals.

 

EDUCATION:

  • Ph.D. Chemical Engineering, Department of Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University Singapore
  • MEng. Energy Technology & Management, Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, Bangkok
  • BSc. (Hons.) Chemical Engineering, KNUST, Ghana

 

WORK EXPERIENCE:

  • Research Scientist (Chargé de Recherche-CRCN), French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the Institut de Chimie des Milieux and Matériaux de Poitiers (IC2MP)
  • Research Engineer, Institut de Chimie des Milieux and Matériaux de Poitiers (IC2MP), France
  • Research Fellow, International Consortium for Eco-Conception and Reenewable Energy (INCREASE, CNRS), Poitiers, France

 

AWARDS & HONORS:

  • ERC Starting Grant 2023: Project ConCASM
  • French Chemical Society (SCF) DivCat Young Researcher Award 2022
  • Singapore International Graduate Award (Agency for Science Technology and Research, A * STAR, Singapore) Ph.D. Scholarship
  • Silver Award (Second place), School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering PhD Symposium 2015, Cash award $ 700
  • Chevron International Graduate Award, National Society of Black Engineers (USA), Cash award $ 3,000 (2011) for Top 10 international graduate students for academic excellence
  • Research publication highlighted as one of NTU Singapore 2015 Energy Research discoveries and selected as front cover image for Angewandte Chimie International Edition Journal, 2015
  • Research on developing green and sustainable processes for the production of industrially valuable chemicals from bio-based compounds featured on back cover for Green Chemistry journal (Green Chem., 2018, 20, 2730-2741)
  • Research on developing alternative and energy efficient technologies for the production of industrially relevant alkyl polyglucosides featured on back cover of ChemSusChem 2018
  • Research on the efficient transformation of biomass using ultrasound irradiation selected as TOP 100 Most read chemistry articles in 2017 (Nature publishing group, Scientific report)
  • Research on biomass conversion and C-H activation featured as frontispiece of Angewandte Chemie International Edition 2015
  • Patent on the production of alkyl polyglucosides using high frequency ultrasounds (WO / 2019/038366)