The Department of Chemistry hosts guest speakers from local industry, research institutes, other universities, and from our own campus as part of a regular seminar series during the academic year. Most talks are open to the public.
All department sponsored seminars for the fall/1st session of 2026-2027 academic year will be held in-person, unless otherwise indicated. Monitor this space for future updates.
Details will be updated as soon as information becomes available.
Want to be updated of future events/information? Ask to be placed on our distribution list by emailing chemseminars@smu.ca
SMU Chemistry Society Summer Research Day
Date: Friday 18 September 2026
Time: 11:30 pm - 1:30 pm (ADT)
Venue: AT101
Dr. Olga Palazhchenko
University of New Brunswick,
Date: Friday 25 September 2026
Time: 11:30 pm - 12:30 pm (ADT)
Dr. Michael Metzger,
Dalhousie University
Date: Friday 2 October 2026
Lauryn Mason
Saint Mary's University
Date: Friday 9 October 2026
Ultrafast Mechanochemical Synthesis of Plasmonic Transition Metal Nitride Nanoparticles
Dr. Blaine Fiss
Date: Friday 16 October 2026
Refractory plasmonic materials, such as transition metal nitrides (TMNs) have shown potential to replace more costly or less robust plasmonic nanomaterials based on gold, silver, aluminum and copper metals. The synthesis of TMN nanoparticles traditionally relies on high-temperature, solid-state synthesis, typically involving the nitridation of metals or their halide and oxide precursors at extreme temperatures (>800 °C) for hours or even days. This method is slow and energy intensive and can prove difficult to scale toward industrial applications. Herein we present a rapid, mechanochemical method requiring no external heating. Effective formation of TMN nanoparticles occurs in as little as 60 seconds of grinding, reducing energy demand from 4.99 kWh/mmol to 0.0033 kWh/mmol. Similar to a previous study in our group, both mono- and mixed-metal nitrides can be achieved. The particles were analyzed using powder X-ray diffraction (pXRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The effect of nitride source, milling time, and milling frequency on the final product formation, size and morphology will be discussed.
TBA
Date: Friday 23 October 2026
Dr. Trevor Clark
University of Prince Edward Island
Date: Friday 30 October 2026