Take advantage of the University of Missouri’s “world-class” resources // Showcase Missouri // University of Missouri

October 5, 2023
Contact: Eric Stein, 573-882-3346, StannE@missouri.edu
Photo by Santiago Guzman

As a child growing up in India, Sachin Handa, an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Missouri, remembers being interested in the paths that various wastes take from manufacturing to their destination. This passion eventually led him to become an organic chemist, focusing on developing sustainable chemical solutions to help “change the world.”

Handa joined the University of Michigan in July 2023 and is currently focused on advancing various aspects of sustainability, including organic synthesis, energy, and national security. He said all of his research projects will benefit from the University of Missouri’s world-class resources, including the Electron Microscopy Core (EMC) and the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR).

“Being at the University of Missouri will allow me and my research team to achieve new heights of discovery and innovation in sustainability,” Handa said.

Handa’s research group aims to develop bio-based synthetic materials.

“Our efforts may one day help provide cost-effective solutions for the development of active pharmaceutical ingredients, including radioisotopes that can be produced at MURR, for use in drugs to treat diseases such as hepatitis B and C,” he explain.

The team’s efforts also include reducing by-product waste and organic solvents from the process.

“According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 80 percent of the waste generated by any chemical comes from organic solvents,” Handa said. “It’s like boiling potatoes – once the potatoes are boiled, the water is thrown away as waste. Most organic solvents are petroleum-based, so solutions need to be developed to reduce solvent use or eliminate solvents from organic synthesis. If you look at the way nature performs chemical reactions, you’ll see that it uses water instead of these harmful organic solvents. But the difficulty with doing organic chemistry in water is that the reactants and products are not soluble in water.”

This is where the micelles developed by Handa’s research group come into play. They are designed as a group of molecules that bind loosely together to form building blocks, 50% are water-soluble, and the other half are synthetically engineered to form a cavity in which chemical reactions can occur independently of the water-filled exterior environment. Micelles can also dynamically open and close, allowing chemical reactions to occur inside and release the final product. The technology is currently commercially licensed from Sigma-Aldrich.

Handa’s self-proclaimed “dream” project is to develop technology that uses water instead of petroleum-based gasoline to power vehicles. The technology involves a photoactive catalyst that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen in the presence of sunlight. While hydrogen will be used to power the vehicle, oxygen will be freely returned to the environment.

Another future project for Handa’s research group is to develop a thin-film coating technology that could one day be used to combat chemical warfare.

“When this photoactive material comes into contact with light, it can oxidize or kill these chemical warfare agents because the catalyst is activated,” Handa said. “We want to design it so that it can contain multiple components so that it can be Targeting multiple war agents. It will also involve us creating various polymers that are stable in extreme environments, such as extreme heat or extreme cold.”

The Handa Group’s ongoing synthetic chemistry work is funded by federal and industry partners.