News and Events:
Thesis Defense:
Jacqueline Bracco – Awarded a GSA Professional Development Grant for travel to attend the 245th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition in New Orleans. The value of the travel award is $400. Advisor – Dr. Steven R. Higgins
Recent Presentations
ACS Local Division, Annual Poster Session and Patterson College Chemistry Awards were held March 12.
Chemistry Awards
Poster Presenters
Recent Chemistry Publications:
Ryan Selhorst and Eric Fossum, Department of Chemistry, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435, USA, Utilization of N,N-diethyl-3,5-difluorobenzene sulfonamide to prepare functionalized poly(arylene ether)s, Polymer, 54 (2013) pp. 530–535.
Man Xua, Katie Sullivana, Garrett VanNessa, Kevin G. Knaussb, and Steven R. Higginsa, aDepartment of Chemistry, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, Ohio 45435, United States,
bEarth Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California 94720, United States, Dissolution Kinetics and Mechanisms at Dolomite–Water Interfaces: Effects of Electrolyte Specific Ionic Strength, Environ. Sci. Technol., 2013, 47 (1), pp 110–118.
C.B. Anders, J. D. Baker, A. C. Stahler, A. Williams, J. N. Sisco, J. C. Trefry, D. P. Wooley, and I. E. Pavel Sizemore, Tangential Flow Ultrafiltration: A “Green” Method for the Size Selection and Concentration of Colloidal Silver Nanoparticles, Journal of Visualized Experiment, e4167, 2012, 1-9.
Most Recent Master's Graduates:
Thesis are now available for viewing online:
Chemistry Graduate Thesis Page
Jessica Davis
Adam Stahler
Jared Duncan
Joshua Baker
Courtney Sutherland
william a. feld, ph.d. - research
Research Interests
Organic Synthesis
Haplomyrtin is a member of the 1-arylnaphthalene lignan lactone series of natural products. They have attracted considerable attention due to their widespread occurrence in nature and the diverse range of their biological activity. The synthesis of this compound presents several challenges. Standard synthetic procedures have provided several precursors of Haplomyrtin. Thsi system appears to be a candidate for solid phase synthetic techniques as well as combinatorial approaches.
Cyclopentadienones are starting materials for a variety of new materials for NLO applications, OLED polymers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Carboxylated cyclopentadienones can be converted into terephthalic ester derivatives, which can be converted into indeno[2,1-c]fluorene derivatives in a few steps. Terephthalates can be precursors for bis(chloromethyl)benzenes that can be used as monomers in the preparation of substituted poly(phenylene vinylene)s.
Monomer/Polymer Synthesis
Conducting and electronically active organic materials offer many advantages over traditional metallic systems - light weight, easy processing, larger variety of forms and wider range of activity. Effective and low cost routes to highly pure monomers that are specifically required for the synthesis of poly(phenylene vinylene) (a conductive polymer), PBT (a structural and electronically active material), polyimides (molecular composite components), and non-linear optical (NLO) materials (fiber optic and photonic device components) are of special interest. The determination of optimum polymerization and processing conditions as well as the synthesis of related systems are being investigated.
Thermally stable and potentially ordered polymers such as polyimides and poly(benzothiazoles) have potential importance as structural materials in the aircraft and automotive industries and as active components in the electronics industry. The determination of structure-property relationships for these polymer systems is an important research area for the "tailoring" of materials for specific applications. The synthesis of these polymers requires careful planning and execution of accepted polymerization techniques and the development of new techniques that account for individual monomer properties. Bifunctional monomers are unique in that they contain both functional groups necessary for the formation of a polymer chain by a condensation reaction. They offer significant synthetic challenges because of the need to have two mutually reactive groups in the same molecule.
