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open access

Accurate Energetics Across the Periodic Table Via Quantum Chemistry

Description: Greater understanding and accurate predictions of structural, thermochemical, and spectroscopic properties of chemical compounds is critical for the advancements of not only basic science, but also in applications needed for the growth and health of the U.S. economy. This dissertation includes new ab initio composite approaches to predict accurate energetics of lanthanide-containing compounds including relativistic effects, and optimization of parameters for semi-empirical methods for transitio… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Peterson, Charles Campbell
open access

Design, Synthesis, and Characterization of Aqueous Polymeric Hybrid Composites and Nanomaterials of Platinum(II) and Gold(I) Phosphorescent Complexes for Sensing and Biomedical Applications

Description: The two major topics studied in this dissertation are the gold(I) pyrazolate trimer {[Au(3-R,5-R’)Pz]3} complexes in aqueous chitosan polymer and phosphorescent polymeric nanoparticles based on platinum(II) based complex. The first topic is the synthesis, characterization and optical sensing application of gold(I) pyrazolate trimer complexes within aqueous chitosan polymer. A gold(I) pyrazolate trimer complex, {[Au(3-CH3,5-COOH)Pz]3}, shows high sensitivity and selectivity for silver ions in aq… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Upadhyay, Prabhat Kumar
open access

Design, Synthesis and Study of Supramolecular Donor – Acceptor Systems Mimicking Natural Photosynthesis Processes

Description: This dissertation investigates the chemical ingenuity into the development of various photoactive supramolecular donor – acceptor systems to produce clean and carbon free energy for the next generation. The process is inspired by the principles learned from nature’s approach where the solar energy is converted into the chemical energy through the natural photosynthesis process. Owing to the importance and complexity of natural photosynthesis process, we have designed ideal donor-acceptor system… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: KC, Chandra Bikram
open access

Synthesis and Studies of AzaBODIPY Derived Donor-Acceptor Systems for Light Induced Charge Separation

Description: The efficiency and mechanism of electron- and energy transfer events occurring in both in natural and synthetic donor-acceptor systems depend on their distance, relative orientation, and the nature of the surrounding media. Fundamental knowledge gained from model studies is key in building efficient energy harvesting and optoelectronic devices. Faster charge separation and slower charge recombination in donor-acceptor systems is often sought out. In our continued effort to build donor-accept… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Collini, Melissa A.
open access

Electrochemical Synthesis and Applications of Layered Double Hydroxides and Derivatives

Description: Layered double hydroxides (LDH) are a class of anionic clay with alternating layers of positive and negative charge. A metal hydroxide layer with divalent and trivalent metals with a positive charge is complemented by an interlayer region containing anions and water with a negative charge. The anions can be exchanged under favorable conditions. Hydrotalcite (Mg6Al2(OH)16[CO3]·4H2O) and other variations are naturally occurring minerals. Synthetic LDH can be prepared as a powder or film by numero… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Kahl, Michael S.
open access

Determination of Solute Descriptors for Illicit Drugs Using Gas Chromatographic Retention Data and Abraham Solvation Model

Description: In this experiment, more than one hundred volatile organic compounds were analyzed with the gas chromatograph. Six capillary columns ZB wax plus, ZB 35, TR1MS, TR5, TG5MS and TG1301MS with different polarities have been used for separation of compounds and illicit drugs. The Abraham solvation model has five solute descriptors. The solute descriptors are E, S, A, B, L (or V). Based on the six stationary phases, six equations were constructed as a training set for each of the six columns. The si… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Mitheo, Yannick K.
open access

Molecules and Materials for Excitonic Solar Cells Using P-type Metal Oxide Semiconductors

Description: This dissertation has two intersecting foci; firstly, the discovery of a new methodology for the growth of high surface area cuprous oxide (Cu2O) substrates. Secondly, the synthesis and characterization of electron-accepting molecules, and their incorporation into excitonic solar cells (XSCs) using the Cu2O substrates as electrodes. Increasing the surface area of the semiconductor creates more locations for charge transfer to occur thus increasing the overall efficiency of the device. Zinc oxid… more
Date: August 2015
Creator: Haynes, Keith M.
open access

Self-assembly Polymeric Nanoparticles Composed of Polymers Crosslinked with Transition Metals for Use in Drug Delivery

Description: A major drawback of chemotherapy is the lack of selectively leading to damage in healthy tissue, which results in severe acute side effects to cancer patients. The use of nanoparticles as a drug delivery system has emerged as novel strategy to overcome the barriers of immunogenic response, controlled release of therapeutic, and targeting the toxicity only to cancerous cells. In this study, polymeric nanoparticles composed of transition metals and particles derived from natural biopolymers hav… more
Date: December 2015
Creator: Nguyen, Duong Thuy
open access

Carbon Nanostructure Based Donor-acceptor Systems for Solar Energy Harvesting

Description: Carbon nanostructure based functional hybrid molecules hold promise in solarenergy harvesting. Research presented in this dissertation systematically investigates building of various donor-acceptor nanohybrid systems utilizing enriched single walled carbon nanotube and graphene with redox and photoactive molecules such as fullerene, porphyrin, and phthalocyanine. Design, synthesis, and characterization of the donor-acceptor hybrid systems have been carefully performed via supramolecular binding… more
Date: December 2013
Creator: Das, Sushanta Kumar
open access

Computational Studies of Inorganic Systems with a Multiscale Modeling Approach: From Atomistic to Continuum Scale

Description: Multiscale modeling is an effective tool for integrating different computational methods, creating a way of modeling diverse chemical and physical phenomena. Presented are studies on a variety of chemical problems at different computational scales and also the combination of different computational methods to study a single phenomenon. The methods used encompass density functional theory (DFT), molecular dynamics (MD) simulations and finite element analysis (FEA). The DFT studies were conducted… more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Olatunji-Ojo, Olayinka A.

Synthesis and Studies of Platinum- and Palladium-Based Porphyrin-Fullerene Conjugates to Study the Long-Lived Charge-Separated States

Description: The research presented in the dissertation deals with the synthesis, characterization, photophysical, electrochemical, and pump probe studies of porphyrin-fullerene based donor-acceptor conjugates. The first chapter provides insights into the introduction of the thesis, which explains the events that occur in natural photosynthesis and the mimicking process of an artificial photosynthesis based on natural photosynthesis, works done in covalently and non-covalently linked donor acceptor systems,… more
Date: July 2023
Creator: Subedi, Dili Raj
open access

Magnetron Sputtering of Transition Metal Oxynitrides and Their Characterization with Auger Electron Spectroscopy and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy

Description: Transition metal oxynitrides are of growing interest for their use as electrocatalyst for nitrogen reduction reaction. The metals in the oxynitride used for catalytic process are stabilized in intermediate state for effective activation of nitrogen. Therefore, studying the interaction of metal oxynitrides films to ambient exposure is necessary. Here, sputter deposited vanadium oxynitride is compared to cobalt oxynitride using insitu Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), ex situ X-ray photoelectron… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Adesope, Qasim Adewale
open access

One-Step Synthesis of 1,3,4-Oxadiazines, 4,5,6,7-Tetrahydro-1h-Indoles, and Functionalized Benzo[B]Carbazoles Catalyzed by Rare Earth Metal Triflates and Cooperative Enamine-Bronsted Acid

Description: Design and development of novel one-step reactions that produce nitrogen-containing scaffolds is an invaluable area of chemistry due to the abundance of these moieties in natural products and biologically active molecules. Discovering novel methods using uncommon substrates and rare earth metals to access these significant scaffolds present a challenge. Over the course of my doctoral studies, I have designed, developed and optimized novel reactions by using rarely known substrates and rare eart… more
Date: May 2023
Creator: Cortes Vazquez, Jose

Porous Organic Polymer-based Nanotraps for Metal Resource Recovery/Extraction from Water

Description: The recovery processes of critical metals from multiple sources have turned more and more attention due to the increasing demand and consumption of them in modern industry. Many metals are used as significant components in manufacturing of a variety of products and equipment, playing significant roles in the economic security and national security; those metals involve rare earth elements (REEs), precious metals which include gold, silver, and platinum group metals (PGMs), and other valuable me… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2025.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Song, Yanpei

Cleaner Futures: Covalent Organic Frameworks for Sustainable Degradation of Lignocellulosic Materials

Description: As countries pledge their commitment to a net-zero future, much of the previously forgotten climate change research were revitalized by efforts from both governmental and private sectors. In particular, the utilization of lignocellulosic materials saw a special spotlight in research interest for its abundance and its carbon removal capability during photosynthesis. The initial effort in mimicking enzymatic active sites of β-glucosidase will be explored. The crystalline covalent organic framewor… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2028.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Lan, Pui Ching
open access

β, β'-π-Extended Porphyrins: Exploration of Functionalization and Aromatic Character

Description: Seventeen new dithiophenyl- and napthodithiophenyl- fused porphyrins were synthesized; from these an additional 7 porphyrin oligomers were also synthesized. Additionally freebase 2,7-dimethoxytriphenylene fused porphyrin was also synthesized from a freebase precursor. Aromatic indices NICS and AICD were used to evaluate these new molecules.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Cooper, Courtney Taylor

Theoretical Studies of Photoactive Metal Complexes with Applications in C-H Functionalization and Quantum Computing

Description: Previous work was successful at delineating reaction pathways for the photoactivated synthesis of an amine, [CztBu(PyriPr)(NH2−PyriPr)], by double intramolecular C−H activation and functionalization via irradiating a metal(II) azido complex, [CztBu(PyriPr)2NiN3. The present work seeks to expand upon earlier research, and to substitute the metal with iron or cobalt, and to expand the study to photocatalyzed intermolecular C−H activation and functionalization of organic substrates. Density functi… more
This item is restricted from view until June 1, 2024.
Date: May 2023
Creator: Alamo Velazquez, Domllermut C.

Design and Synthesis of Gold (I) Acyclic Diamino Carbene Complexes as Metallodrugs for Cancer and for Asymmetric Catalysis

Description: Many previous studies have demonstrated that gold compounds possess successful results in catalysis and in medicinal chemistry. The central aim of this dissertation is the design and synthesis of novel gold (I) acyclic diamino carbene complexes as a chemotherapeutic agent for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) and for catalysis. In this study, a series of chiral neutral and cationic gold (I) acyclic diamino carbene (ADC) complexes and neutral gold (I) bis- ADC complexes have been synthesize… more
This item is restricted from view until August 1, 2025.
Date: July 2023
Creator: Asuramana Pedi Durayalage, Roshani
open access

Transition Metal Mediated C-o Bond Cleavage: From Co2 Activation to Lignin Degradation

Description: CO2 activation and conversion mediated by transition metal (TM) catalysts were investigated. Homogeneous catalysis of the reverse water gas shift reaction CO2+H2→H2O+CO was studied as a means to reduce CO2.  β-diketiminato metal models L'MI ( L' =C3N2H5-; M = first-row TMs) were considered as potential catalysts. The thermodynamics of prototypical reaction pathways were simulated using B3LYP/aug-cc-pVTZ. Results show that middle series metal complexes result in more thermodynamically favorable … more
Date: August 2013
Creator: Liu, Cong
open access

Analysis of Trace Amounts of Adulterants Found in Powders/Supplements Utilizing Direct Inject, Nanomanipulation, and Mass Spectrometry

Description: The regulations of many food products in the United States have been made and followed very well but unfortunately some products are not put under such rigorous standards as others. This leads to products being sold, that are thought to be healthy, but in reality contain unknown ingredients that may be hazardous to the consumers. With the use of several instrumentations and techniques the detection, characterization and identification of these unknown contaminates can be determined. Both the AZ… more
Date: August 2016
Creator: Nnaji, Chinyere
open access

Solution Studies of ⁶Li Enriched Organolithium Compounds Using New NMR Techniques

Description: With the values of 6Li T1 measured and the literature values of J(13C-6Li) for these compounds, three new 13C NMR techniques are developed for the analysis of organolithium compounds. Modifications to the spectrometer are discussed, as well as calibrations of the 6Li decoupler channel needed to set up these new experiments. The theoretical development of each technique is presented, as well as data from their verification, using organolithium compounds of known structure. Once qualified, the ne… more
Date: May 1990
Creator: Ellington, Donald H. (Donald Howard)

Synthesis and Characterization of π-Extended Benzoporphyrins

Description: Porphyrins offer a very synthetically flexible template which can be modified in numerous ways to synthesize molecules with very useful properties applicable in areas such as non-linear optical properties, photodynamic therapy, dye-sensitized solar cells, chemical sensors and organic electronic devices. β-Substituted π-extended porphyrins offer unique capabilities in tuning the properties of the molecule towards practical applications. Increased π-conjugation allows the HOMO-LUMO gap to decreas… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Kumar, Siddhartha

Development and Testing of Gold(I) and Europium(III) Based Sensors for Environmental Applications

Description: This dissertation focuses on the development, characterization, and analysis of luminescent materials and coatings for sensing applications, including CO2, heavy metals, and silver. Chapter 2 involves the use of a gold(I) pyrazolate trimer that is able to detect silver ions with an AgNP medium. Detection of silver is vital, because there is an influx of silver into our environment caused by the increased use of AgNP. Therefore, having a sensor that is able to differentiate between and detect on… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Benton, Erin Nicole

Computational Studies of C-H Bond Activation and Ethylene Polymerization Using Transition Metal Complexes

Description: This work discusses the C-H bond activation by transition metal complexes using various computational methods. First, we performed a DFT study of oxidative addition of methane to Ta(OC2H4)3A (where A may act as an ancillary ligand) to understand how A may affect the propensity of the complex to undergo oxidative addition. Among the A groups studied, they can be a Lewis acid (B or Al), a saturated, electron-precise moiety (CH or SiH), a σ-donor (N), or a σ-donor/π-acid (P). By varying A, we seek… more
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Date: May 2019
Creator: Parveen, Riffat
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