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open access

Allowing Students to Have VOICES (Voluntary Options in Chemical Education Schedules) in General Chemistry I

Description: The purpose of this investigation (a quasi-experimental design called a non-equivalent design group (NEDG)) was to determine if allowing students in a science majors general Chemistry I course the choice in establishing the due dates that their homework was due to the instructor would improve course averages. This study covered two semesters with a total of 288 students participating with n = 158 in the fall and n = 130 in the spring. The students self-selected the homework group, VOICES, tha… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Ford, Robyn Lynn
open access

Applications of Metallic Clusters and Nanoparticles via Soft Landing Ion Mobility, from Reduced to Ambient Pressures

Description: Nanoparticles, simple yet groundbreaking objects have led to the discovery of invaluable information due to their physiological, chemical, and physical properties, have become a hot topic in various fields of study including but not limited to chemistry, biology, and physics. In the work presented here, demonstrations of various applications of chemical free nanoparticles are explored, from the determination of a non-invasive method for the study of the exposome via using soft-landing ion mobil… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Aguilar Ayala, Roberto
open access

Computational and Experimental Studies of the Photoluminescence, Reactivity and Structural Properties of d10 and d8 Metal Complexes

Description: Computational chemistry has gained interest as a characterization tool to predict photoluminescence, reactivity and structural properties of organic and transition metal complexes. With the rise of methods including relativity, these studies have been expanded to the accurate modeling of luminescence spectra of complexes with considerable spin-orbit splitting due to heavy metal centers as well as the reaction pathways for these complexes to produce natural products such as hydrogen gas. These a… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Otten, Brooke Michelle
open access

Computational Investigation of DNA Repair Enzymes: Determination and Characterization of Cancer Biomarkers and Structural Features

Description: Genomic integrity is important for living cells' correct functioning and propagation. Deoxyribonucleic acid as a molecule is a subject to chemical reactions with agents that can come from environment as well as from internal metabolism processes. These reactions can induce damage to DNA and thus compromise the genetic information, and result in disease and death of an organism. To mitigate the damage to DNA, cells have evolved to have multiple DNA repair pathways. Presented here is a computat… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Silvestrov, Pavel
open access

Computational Simulations of Cancer and Disease-Related Enzymatic Systems Using Molecular Dynamics and Combined Quantum Methods

Description: This work discusses applications of computational simulations to enzymatic systems with a particular focus on the effects of various small perturbations on cancer and disease-related systems. First, we cover the development of carbohydrate-based PET imaging ligands for Galectin-3, which is a protein overexpressed in pancreatic cancer tumors. We uncover several structural features for the ligands that can be used to improve their binding and efficacy. Second, we discuss the AlkB family of enzym… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Walker, Alice Rachel
open access

Computational Studies of C–H/C–C Manipulation Utilizing Transition Metal Complexes

Description: Density Functional Theory (DFT) is an effective tool for studying diverse metal systems. Presented herein are studies of a variety of metal systems, which can be applied to accomplish transformations that are currently difficult/impossible to achieve. The specific topics studied utilizing DFT include: 1) C–H bond activation via an Earth-abundant transition metal complex, 2) C–H bond deprotonation via an alkali metal superbase, 3) and amination/aziridination reactions utilizing a CuI reagent. Us… more
Date: May 2015
Creator: Pardue, Daniel B.
open access

Computational Study of Small Molecule Activation via Low-Coordinate Late First-Row Transition Metal Complexes

Description: Methane and dinitrogen are abundant precursors to numerous valuable chemicals such as methanol and ammonia, respectively. However, given the robustness of these substrates, catalytically circumventing the high temperatures and pressures required for such transformations has been a challenging task for chemists. In this work, computational studies of various transition metal catalysts for methane C-H activation and N2 activation have been carried out. For methane C-H activation, catalysts of th… more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Pierpont, Aaron
open access

Design, Synthesis and Optoelectronic Properties of Monovalent Coinage Metal-Based Functional Materials toward Potential Lighting, Display and Energy-Harvesting Devices

Description: Groundbreaking progress in molecule-based optoelectronic devices for lighting, display and energy-harvesting technologies demands highly efficient and easily processable functional materials with tunable properties governed by their molecular/supramolecular structure variations. To date, functional coordination compounds whose function is governed by non-covalent weak forces (e.g., metallophilic, dπ-acid/dπ-base stacking, halogen/halogen and/or d/π interactions) remain limited. This is unlike t… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Ghimire, Mukunda Mani
open access

Disease Tissue Imaging and Single Cell Analysis with Mass Spectrometry

Description: Cells have been found to have an inherent heterogeneity that has led to an increase in the development of single-cell analysis methods to characterize the extent of heterogeneity that can be found in seemingly identical cells. With an understanding of normal cellular variability, the identification of disease induced cellular changes, known as biomarkers, may become more apparent and readily detectable. Biomarker discovery in single-cells is challenging and needs to focus on molecules that ar… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Hamilton, Jason S.
open access

Electrodeposition of Molybdenum-Based Coatings from Aqueous Alkaline Solutions for Enhanced Corrosion Resistance

Description: Zn-Mo coatings are very promising environment friendly anticorrosive coatings as replacement materials for cadmium and chromium (VI) based conversion layers. Electrodeposition has become a favorable technique in fabricating coatings due to its low cost, ease of use, and overall experimental control of coating quality. Very little research so far has been done for the electrodeposition of Zn-Mo coatings under alkaline conditions. In this work, Zn and Zn-Mo coatings were electrochemically deposit… more
Date: May 2018
Creator: Zhou, Ting
open access

Elucidation of Photoinduced Energy and Electron Transfer Mechanisms in Multimodular Artificial Photosynthetic Systems

Description: Multimodular designs of electron donor-acceptor systems are the ultimate strategy in fabricating antenna-reaction center mimics for artificial photosynthetic applications. The studied photosystems clearly demonstrated efficient energy transfer from the antenna system to the primary electron donor, and charge stabilization of the radical ion pair achieved with the utilization of secondary electron donors that permits either electron migration or hole transfer. Moreover, the molecular arrangement… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Lim, Gary Lloyd
open access

Exploration of Transition Metal-Containing Catalytic Cycles via Computational Methods

Description: Styrene production by a (FlDAB)PdII(TFA)(η2-C2H4) complex was modeled using density functional theory (DFT). Benzene C-H activation by this complex was studied via five mechanisms: oxidative addition/reductive elimination, sigma-bond metathesis, concerted metalation deprotonation (CMD), CMD activation of ethylene, and benzene substitution of ethylene followed by CMD of the ligated benzene. Calculations provided evidence that conversion of benzene and ethylene to styrene was initiated by the fif… more
Date: May 2019
Creator: Ceylan, Yavuz Selim
open access

High-Energy, Long-Lived Charge-Separated States via Molecular Engineering of Triplet State Donor-Acceptor Systems

Description: Molecular engineering of donor-acceptor dyads and multimodular systems to control the yield and lifetime of charge separation is one of the key goals of artificial photosynthesis for harvesting sustainably solar energy. The design of the donor-acceptor systems mimic a part of green plants and bacterial photosynthetic processes. The photochemical events in natural photosynthesis involve the capturing and funneling of solar energy by a group of well-organized chromophores referred to as an ‘anten… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Obondi, Christopher O
open access

Investigating Molecular Structures: Rapidly Examining Molecular Fingerprints Through Fast Passage Broadband Fourier Transform Microwave Spectroscopy

Description: Microwave spectroscopy is a gas phase technique typically geared toward measuring the rotational transitions of Molecules. The information contained in this type of spectroscopy pertains to a molecules structure, both geometric and electronic, which give insight into a molecule's chemistry. Typically this type of spectroscopy is high resolution, but narrowband ≤1 MHz in frequency. This is achieved by tuning a cavity, exciting a molecule with electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region, tu… more
Date: May 2011
Creator: Grubbs, Garry Smith, II
open access

MBE Growth and Characterization of Graphene on Well-Defined Cobalt Oxide Surfaces: Graphene Spintronics without Spin Injection

Description: The direct growth of graphene by scalable methods on magnetic insulators is important for industrial development of graphene-based spintronic devices, and a route towards substrate-induced spin polarization in graphene without spin injection. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), low energy electron diffraction LEED, electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) demonstrate the growth of Co3O4(111) and CoO(111) to thicknesses greater than 100 Å on Ru(0001) sur… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Olanipekun, Opeyemi B
open access

Microwave-Assisted Synthesis and Photophysical Properties of Poly-Imine Ambipolar Ligands and Their Rhenium(I) Carbonyl Complexes

Description: The phenomenon luminescence rigidochromism has been reported since the 1970s in tricarbonyldiimine complexes with a general formula [R(CO)3LX] using conventional unipolar diimine ligands such as 2,2;-bipyridine or 1,10-phenanthroline as L, and halogens or simple solvents as X. As a major part of this dissertation, microwave-assisted synthesis, purification, characterization and detailed photoluminescence studies of the complex fac-[ReCl(CO)3L], 1, where L = 4-[4,6-bis(3,5-dimethyl-1H-pyrazol-1-… more
Date: August 2017
Creator: Salazar Garza, Gustavo Adolfo
open access

Optoelectronically Active Metal-Inorganic Frameworks and Supramolecular Extended Solids

Description: Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have been intensely researched over the past 20 years. In this dissertation, metal-inorganic frameworks (MIFs), a new class of porous and nonporous materials using inorganic complexes as linkers, in lieu of traditional organic linkers in MOFs is reported. Besides novel MIF regimes, the previously described fluorous MOF "FMOF-1", is re-categorized herein as "F-MIF1". F-MIF-1 is comprised of [Ag4Tz6]2- (Tz = 3,5-bis-trifluoromethyl-1,2,4-triazolate) inorganic clust… more
Date: August 2018
Creator: Ivy, Joshua F.
open access

Rational Design of Metal-organic Electronic Devices: a Computational Perspective

Description: Organic and organometallic electronic materials continue to attract considerable attention among researchers due to their cost effectiveness, high flexibility, low temperature processing conditions and the continuous emergence of new semiconducting materials with tailored electronic properties. In addition, organic semiconductors can be used in a variety of important technological devices such as solar cells, field-effect transistors (FETs), flash memory, radio frequency identification (RFID) t… more
Date: December 2012
Creator: Chilukuri, Bhaskar
open access

Reductive Functionalization of 3D Metal-Methyl Complexes and Characterization of a Novel Dinitrogen Dicopper (I) Complex

Description: Reductive functionalization of methyl ligands by 3d metal catalysts and two possible side reactions has been studied. Selective oxidation of methane, which is the primary component of natural gas, to methanol (a more easily transportable liquid) using organometallic catalysis, has become more important due to the abundance of domestic natural gas. In this regard, reductive functionalization (RF) of methyl ligands in [M(diimine)2(CH3)(Cl)] (M: VII (d3) through CuII (d9)) complexes, has been stud… more
Date: May 2017
Creator: Fallah, Hengameh
open access

Semiconducting Aromatic Boron Carbide Films for Neutron Detection and Photovoltaic Applications

Description: Semiconducting aromatic-boron carbide composite/alloyed films formed by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition from carborane and aromatic precursors have been demonstrated to be excellent detectors for thermal neutrons because of the large 10B cross section. The electronic properties of these films derived from XPS show that the properties of boron carbide can be tuned by co-deposition of aromatic compounds and carborane. Aromatic doping results in narrower indirect band gaps (1.1 - 1.7 eV … more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Oyelade, Adeola O
open access

Sensitization of Lanthanides and Organic-Based Phosphorescence via Energy Transfer and Heavy-Atom Effects

Description: The major topics discussed are the phosphorescence sensitization in the lanthanides via energy transfer and in the organics by heavy atom effects. The f-f transitions in lanthanides are parity forbidden and have weak molar extinction coefficients. Upon complexation with the ligand, ttrpy (4'-p-Tolyl-[2,2':6',2"]-terpyridine) the absorption takes place through the ligand and the excitation is transferred to the lanthanides, which in turn emit. This process is known as "sensitized luminescence." … more
Date: May 2010
Creator: Arvapally, Ravi K.
open access

Silver(I) and Copper(I) Complexes from Homoleptic to Heteroleptic: Synthesis, Structure and Characterization

Description: A plethora of novel scientific phenomena and practical applications, such as solid-state molecular solar cells and other optoelectronic devices for energy harvesting and lighting technologies, have catalyzed us to synthesize novel compounds with tunable properties. Synthetic routes, single crystal structures, and spectral and materials properties are described. Reactions of Ag(I) and Cu(I) precursors with various types of ligands -- including the azolates, diimines, and diiphosphines -- lead to… more
Date: December 2018
Creator: Almotawa, Ruaa Mohammed
open access

Spectral, Electrochemical, Electron Transfer, and Photoelectrochemical Studies of Tetrapyrrole Derived Supramolecular Systems

Description: Energy- and electron-transfer processes in molecular and supramolecular donor-acceptor systems are of current interest in order to develop light-energy harvesting systems through designing covalently linked donor-acceptor systems or utilizing self-assembled donor-acceptor systems. The research presented in this dissertation deals with the electrochemical, anion binding, and photochemical studies of various oxoporphyrinogen (OxPs), porphyrin, corrole, and phenothiazine systems. The first chapter… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Webre, Whitney Ann
open access

Synthesis and Characterization of β-Functionalized π-Extended Porphyrins

Description: Porphyrins with extended π-electronic networks are promising candidates for a wide range of applications from medicine to nanotechnology owing to their unique optical and electronic properties. This dissertation is focused on synthesis, characterization and application of β-functionalized π-extended porphyrins. This dissertation is comprised of seven chapters. Chapter 1 focuses on the importance and objective of this work. Chapter 2 gives brief introduction to porphyrins and π-extended porphyri… more
Date: December 2019
Creator: Hu, Yi
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