Chemistry Student Seminar (CSS) is a student-organized seminar series that host graduate students and postdocs to share their research in a friendly and informal environment. These seminars are are held on Friday mornings at 10:00AM in Room 4-163. Free donuts, bagels and coffee are provided.
General Purpose of the Chemistry Seminar Program ◾To help students develop professional skills and attitudes of scientists. ◾To address issues of importance to scientists that typically do not fit well into traditional chemistry courses. (eg. scientific ethics, career issues, etc.)
Seminars are often defined as small, discussion-based courses. Typically, students complete readings and assignments before the class and discuss major themes or topics during class.
Seminar courses are held in small groups. In addition, students can choose seminar courses from the syllabus and deepen their learning on a topic of their interest. In fourth-year seminars, students write a graduation thesis, which is the culmination of four years of study. Seminars are not compulsory for students.
Though some students view a seminar as an easier course than traditional college classes, these seminars still require a large amount of work. In a traditional seminar class, the professor will present students with a syllabus that tells them the materials and resources they need to read before the next class.
Examples of such seminars include personal finance, web marketing, real estate, investing or other types of seminars where the participants gain knowledge or tips about the topic of discussion.
Definition of seminar 1 : a group of advanced students studying under a professor with each doing original research and all exchanging results through reports and discussions. 2a(1) : a course of study pursued by a seminar. (2) : an advanced or graduate course often featuring informality and discussion.
Seminars are an important part of many academic programmes and provide an opportunity for a group of students to discuss and analyse a range of new material, ideas and concepts together with the tutor. In some schools such classes are referred to as seminars and in other they are called tutorials.
Definitions: A seminar is a small group session where you get the chance to discuss the content you have been assigned to learn for the week. A lecture is a large group session where the teacher is the central discussant.
Abstract: Small-molecule organic materials are of increasing interest for electronic and photonic devices due to their solution processability and tunability , allowing devices to be fabricated at low temperature on flexible substrates and offering utility in specialized applications. This tunability is the result of functionalization through careful synthetic strategy to influence both material properties and solid-state arrangement, both crucial variables in device applications. Functionalization of a core molecule with various substituents allows the fine-tuning of optical and electronic properties, and functionalization with solubilizing groups allows some degree of control over the solid-state order, or crystal packing. These combinations of core chromophores with varying substituents are systematically evaluated to develop structure-function relationships that can be applied to numerous applications. In this work, heteroacenes are investigated for singlet fission and triplet harvesting, with known crystal engineering strategies applied to optimize crystal packing and maximize relevant solid-state interactions. Further, a class of antiaromatic compounds are investigated using the same approaches to build up structure-function relationships and provide insight into the properties of a relatively understudied core molecule.
Abstract: Secondary metabolites are organic compounds produced by an organism for reasons other than growth and development. In plants, secondary metabolites generally act as defense agents produced to deter predators and inhibit other competitive species. For humans, these compounds can often have a beneficial effect and are pursued and utilized as natural pharmaceuticals. The development of sensitive, high-throughput analytical screening methods for plant derived metabolites is crucial for natural pharmaceutical product discovery and plant metabolomic profiling. Here, metabolomic profiling methods were developed using a microfluidic capillary zone electrophoresis device and evaluated against traditional separation approaches. An alkaloid screening assay was constructed to analyze transgenic mutant plant extracts for novel metabolites. Putatively identified novel features were detected, elucidated, and then isolated and purified for pharmaceutical evaluation. Additionally, methods for the analysis of polyphenolic plant-derived secondary metabolites, such as cannabinoids, were also developed and evaluated. In this case, the occurrence of cross-instrumental variation was addressed, given the tight legal restrictions regarding commercialization the products in question. Lastly, the microfluidic CZE-MS methods were further applied for both primary and secondary metabolite profiling in a DMPK assay. This assay was developed to inclusively monitor metabolic changes as a response to varying concentrations of a therapeutic in circulation. The metabolomic methods developed and evaluated in this work displayed high sensitivity, efficiency, and accuracy and can be utilized across a wide variety of applications.
The material will focus on recent developments in synthetic organic chemistry, including: concerted/pericyclic reactions, catalysis, green/environmental chemistry, automated synthesis, and combinatorial/screening methods. Additional topics will include an introduction to materials and polymer chemistry.
The third course in the 350 sequence covers the very important topic of spectroscopy from a physical chemistry point of view. It deals with the use of various spectroscopic techniques (FTIR spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, uv/visible absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy) for structure determination of gas and liquid phase molecules and for kinetics measurements. In addition, you will be asked to design and carry out a 4-week research project at the end of the quarter based on some aspect of course material in the entire CHEM 350 sequence.
The first part of the course focuses on a practical approach to chemical kinetics and dynamics. It will briefly review basic rate laws and rate laws for complex reactions, temperature dependence of reaction rates as well as their chemical applications. The second part of the course focuses on spectroscopic methods in solving chemical kinetics and dynamics problems, with fundamental concepts on the interaction of light and matter, the core process in various spectroscopic methods. This is an advanced graduate level course on a special topic, which implies that one will study the materials in a research-like atmosphere and will read and critique the literature. The prerequisite of the course are some quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and fundamental spectroscopy knowledge, and some basic calculus and linear algebra skills.
Advanced techniques of synthetic inorganic chemistry including synthesis of zeolites, MOFs, and bioinorganic compounds and use of a Schlenk line. In addition, you will learn instrumental analysis techniques relevant to analysis of samples in materials chemistry. These techniques will include X-ray crystallography, solid state NMR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, atomic spectroscopy, and a variety of polymer characterization techniques (MALDI-TOF MS, NMR spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, gel permeation chromatography, DSC). Some of these analytical techniques may be used to analyze the inorganic samples you prepare in the course.
Laboratory techniques for studying chemical analysis and chemical reactions relevant to environmental or materials research. Planning, data collection, interpretation, and reporting on experiments. Must be taken concurrently with the CHEM 171-0 lecture course.
This course introduces first year graduate students and seniors in chemistry to the field of materials and nanotechnology focusing on synthetic methods to create materials and nanostructures with specific function s. Following an introduction that defines "materials" and "nanoscience", the course covers specific synthetic strategies and methodologies. The first topic covered is polymerization chemistry, starting with basic principles followed by the most advanced methods known to synthesize polymers such as living free radical reactions, ring opening methathesis polymerization, recombinant DNA synthesis of polymers, and supramolecular noncovalent polymers. This is followed by topics in selfassembly of materials and nanostructures including liquid crystals, gels, self-assembly of amphiphiles, self-assembling monolayers, layer-by-layer assemblies, and colloidal crystals. The last third of the course covers chemical synthesis of ceramics, and synthesis of nanomaterials such as quantum dots, metal nanoparticles, graphene, and carbon nanotubes. Prerequisites: full year of organic chemistry.
Green chemistry is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as the design of chemical products and processes that reduce or eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. This also encompasses the reduction of energy consumption during the aforementioned processes. Green chemistry can be thought to span the life cycle of a chemical product, including its design, manufacture, use, and ultimate disposal.#N#This class will seek to develop a broad view on green chemistry, with focus on exploring the economic, health and regulatory considerations which make it a multi-billion dollar enterprise. An emphasis on practical real-world scenarios (case studies) that provide us guidance in making better socially conscience decisions will be made. The course can be viewed primarily as being concerned with the philosophy of chemistry as dictated by our modern world in the 21st Century.