Theoretical studies on electronic structure governing charge transport properties are investigated to understand and improve the prediction of electron charge carrier organic semiconductors used in field-effect transistors. Perfluorinated oligothiophene semiconductors have shown experimental n-type behavior, but placement of fluorinated aryl groups changes charge polarities. Models were developed to investigate how...
This thesis consists of the synthesis and photophysical characterization of chlorophyll- and porphyrin- based multichromophore arrays designed for the purpose of studying energy and charge transfer therein. The first series of arrays consists of donor-acceptor dyads in which various arylene diimide electron acceptors are attached through a phenyl group to...
Part 1. The complex folded structures associated with RNA allow for specific protein-RNA interactions and also create binding sites for small molecules. Developing organic molecules that can bind RNA with high affinity and specificity is a challenge that must be overcome for RNA to be considered a viable drug target....
The porphyrazines (pzs), a class of porphyrin derivatives, have shown potential as therapeutic and imaging agents due to a combination of their near-IR absorbance/fluorescence and their enhanced chemical flexibility. Cell viability/proliferation assays and fluorescence microscopy were carried out in both tumor and normal cells to characterize the biological activity of...
This dissertation describes the development and use of novel chemical affinity templates to direct the assembly and preserve the activity of biological molecules in surface- and solution-based biomolecular assays. The majority of work described herein focuses on advancing biological nanoarray technology to enable the study of fundamentally important biological processes...
UV Raman spectroscopy is a powerful tool to investigate hydrocarbons-zeolite systems, including the coke formation mechanism during MTH reactions, the sorbet-framework interactions and the quantitative analysis of catalytic reactions.
First, methanol, dimethyl ether and ethylene reactions were carried out on H-MFI with different Si/Al atomic ratios to study the coke...
The work described here includes both fundamental and application based studies centered around the use of plasmonic sensors. Fundamental studies focus on probing the optical properties of nanosphere lithography (NSL) fabricated Ag nanoparticles, while surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) sensors are applied to identify and characterize artists' red dye and red...
The [(salen)CrCl + LB] catalyst system was found to be a highly active catalyst system for the [aziridine + CO<sub>2</sub>] coupling reaction, and exhibited a marked preference for the formation of 5-substituted oxazolidinone product, especially in the absence of cocatalyst. The activity of this catalyst system is optimized by modifying...
A catalytic, multi-component coupling reaction for the synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles has been developed, via the reaction of an imine, &#945;-diazoester and unsaturated coupling partner in the presence of a copper(I) or rhodium(II) transition metal catalyst with excellent diastereo-selectivities and high yields. The transition metal-catalyzed decomposition of a diazo compound...
High relaxivity contrast agents are of great importance in the advancement of magnetic resonance imaging diagnostics for use in biomaterials. Biomaterials that are implanted into the body, with the goal of repairing or regenerating lost or damaged tissue, need to be tracked noninvasively, over time. I have completed work using...