Soft materials are inherently fluxional, with morphologies and behaviors that are dictated by their solvation state. Thus, many organic systems cannot be reliably imaged by static dry state or cryogenic-transmission electron microscopy (TEM). This motivated us to pursue liquid cell (LC) TEM method development to study our own materials and...
Uranium is a unique, multifaceted element that possesses rich chemistry and promise for challenging reactions. Pressing demands within nuclear stockpile stewardship and the nuclear energy sector call for development of this relatively understudied element. Uranium metal–organic frameworks (U-MOFs), a class of nanoscale hybrid materials, harness the exceptional attributes of uranium...
Amyloid beta oligomers (AβOs) are a key instigator of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The work presented in this thesis includes three disease-modifying approaches to disrupt pathological AβO-related mechanisms in AD: (1) inhibiting AβO buildup, (2) blocking AβO-induced tau phosphorylation, and (3) neutralizing AβOs. These three approaches were tested in...
A fundamental materials science question is “why and how will this material form?” The experimental,computation, and time resources necessary to answer this question consume significant resources due to the
predominantly trial-and-error based approaches common in materials research. This dissertation reintroduces
a number of fundamental thermodynamics-based tools for the study of...
DNA is extremely versatile and powerful, both as a construct in biological applications and as a ligand in materials design due to the fact that its recognition properties can be programmed through sequence and length. Spherical nucleic acids (SNAs), nanoparticles surrounded by a dense shell of DNA or RNA, are...
Wireless power strategies are critical to system level implementation of bio-integrated devices. To achieve mechanically robust, manufacturable systems, batteries are often integrated as an on-board power source to support sensing, wireless communication and signal conditioning. Unfortunately, most sources of battery power use hazardous and environmentally harmful materials, which frustrate incorporation...
Understanding the photophysical processes of organic materials is important for utilizing them as functional photonic materials. Typical photophysical processes include intersystem crossing, charge transfer (CT), symmetry-breaking charge separation (SB-CS), singlet fission (SF), etc. There are serval factors that can lead to different photophysical processes, such as the molecular energy levels,...
Industrial processes heavily rely on catalysts to control product selectivity and lower energy barriers required for chemical transformations. Catalysts are most commonly solid heterogeneous catalysts that facilitate separations from reaction mixtures and enhance recyclability. Heterogeneous catalysts used in industrial processes exhibit efficacious results, but in certain instances drawing structure-function relationships...
This thesis presents results on photophysics and spin dynamics of photoactive organic molecules that possess one unpaired electron spin in the ground state and two or three unpaired spins upon photoexcitation. The excited state dynamics of the systems were studied using transient optical absorption spectroscopies and non-Boltzmann population on the...
Understanding the mechanisms associated with chemical catalysis is vital for not only the rational improvement of their capabilities, but also for the advancement of the fundamental knowledge affiliated with the systems in question. These new insights can help predict new reactivities towards more challenging substrates which will allow for easier...
Carbon nanomaterials, such as graphene and graphene oxide, have outstanding mechanical strength, stiffness, and toughness that surpass those of materials currently used to build structures. However, these properties are limited to the nanoscale and have not yet been attained in macroscopic composites containing carbon nanomaterials. To integrate the mechanical properties...
Proteins are the nanoscale building blocks of life. Their sophisticated but well-defined architectures result in complex biological functions, including ones involved in metabolism, photosynthesis, transcription, translation, and immunity. To study and improve upon the natural functions of proteins, it is desirable to develop methodology for organizing proteins into targeted architectures....
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are man-made compounds containing multiple carbon–fluorine bonds. The unique properties of this strong bond simultaneously make PFAS useful for a number of industrial and consumer applications, toxic to living organisms, and difficult to remediate. Because the pervasive pollution of water sources with PFAS occurs at...
Organic photovoltaics offer an opportunity to make solar cells more affordable and widely accessible using cheap, solution-processable light-absorbing layers. In order to realize new technologies, a fundamental understanding of organic chromophore photophysics is required to overcome efficiency limitations. Throughout this doctoral work, I investigated the kinetic and physical characteristics of...
The construction of new C–C bonds remains a central facet of organic chemistry due to its critical role in the synthesis of pharmaceutical compounds and organic materials. Mild and selective methodologies are often required for efficient formation of these bonds in natural product total synthesis, medicinal chemistry campaigns, and more....
Triplet excited state chemistry has enabled a range of important organic transformations by accessing reaction pathways inaccessible to photoredox chemistry. Such photoreactions are triggered by triplet photosensitizers, which absorb visible-light photons and transfer the energy to the substrate or to a co-catalyst through triplet-triplet energy transfer (TT EnT). The most...
As the interest in rational synthesis for solid-state materials accelerates, there is an urgent need to understand the design principles concealed within these reactions. In situ material synthesis provides such an avenue to not only uncover these assembling rules, but also for finding new materials even in seemingly familiar phase...
Biomedical imaging is an essential part of medicine that enables the non-invasive observation of biological phenomena. This, in turn, allows for more accurate and earlier diagnoses, monitoring of therapies, and even fundamental research into biological processes. Molecular imaging, a fast-growing subdiscipline of biomedical imaging, seeks to image biochemical processes at...
This introductory chemistry textbook was compiled by Shelby Hatch at Northwestern University and is adapted from the following sources:
"Introductory Chemistry" by David W. Ball, The Saylor Foundation, Cleveland State University, is licensed
under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 and is available at https://open.umn.edu/opentextbooks/textbooks/introductory-chemistry ; "Chemistry of Cooking" by Sorangel Rodriguez-Velazquez, American...
Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) particles are a class of highly abundant atmospheric constituents that represent a substantial fraction of carbon within the climate system. A subset of naturally-occurring SOA particles are formed through atmospheric oxidation of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), forming oxygenated products of lower volatility that can partition...