CST Chemistry Update Fall 2014

College of Science and Technology

Chemistry UPDATE

College of Science and Technology

CHAIR’S MESSAGE 2013-14 was an outstanding academic year for faculty recruiting. Katherine Willets joined the department at the associate level with tenure. Professor Willets is an expert in nanoparticle plasmonics, SERS and super-resolution imaging, and received tenure at the University of Texas at Austin. Sarah Wengryniuk (Scripps) and Graham Dobereiner (MIT) also joined the department at the assistant professor level with expertise in chemical biology and organometallic synthesis, respectively. In 2013, Professor Ronald Levy joined the department bringing his world-class biophysics research to Temple from Rutgers as well as directing the Center for Biophysics and Computational Biology.

Several of our faculty members, including Ann Valentine, Michael Zdilla, Spiridoula Matsika, William Wuest and Michael Klein earned prestigious awards for their research efforts. Graduate students and undergraduates also were recognized, including three chemistry students earning highly competitive NSF Graduate Research Fellowship Program grants.

Groundbreaking research in energy, materials science, medicinal chemistry, nanoscience, photonics, sensing, and chemical biology bolstered our scientific output with more than 140 papers in 2013. Sponsored research funding broke our record with awards from NSF, NIH, ARL, DOE, AFOSR, ONR, DTRA and DARPA, as well as the recently awarded DOE Energy Frontier Research Center grant of $12 million over 4 years. The new Science Education and Research Center has dedicated research and teaching spaces for our faculty and students, as well as access to SERC’s advanced Materials Research Institute Instrumentation Facility.

Chemistry graduates continue to find success in the job market and in prestigious graduate programs. Financial contributions to the department from alumni and friends continue to increase. Thank you for supporting the Department of Chemistry.

Sincerely,

Robert Levis Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry

LOOK INSIDE: NSF Fellowship . . . . . . . . . 2 New Faculty . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Faculty Awards . . . . . . . . . 2 Department of Chemistry Funded Research . . . . . . . 3 Science Education and Research Center Grand Opening . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 All Alumni Chemistry Reunion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

FALL 2014

Developing a way to make lithium batteries safer, cheaper Lithium ion batteries, central to powering most modern technology, are potentially dangerous—the liquid electrolytes used in the manufacturing of those batteries Stephanie Wunder Michael Zdilla can be volatile.

Now, two CST chemists have developed a way of creating a solid electrolyte that might reduce the battery’s volatility without decreasing its conductivity or increasing its costs.

“There have been quite a few thrusts toward making lithium batteries safer, and one of them is to make everything in the battery a solid,” said Professor of Chemistry Stephanie Wunder, who is collaborating with Assistant Professor of Chemistry Michael Zdilla. “But in general, solids are less conductive.”

Zdilla’s lab has developed a new, solid electrolyte matrix by dissolving organic liquids with lithium salts—like table salt but with lithium instead of sodium ions. Both materials are similar to those currently used in lithium ion batteries. A non-polar solvent is then added. “They are the same inexpensive materials that are going into lithium batteries right now,” he noted.

“We found a new organic matrix that seemed to have extremely good low-temperature conductivity,” Wunder said. Though the matrix currently decomposes above room temperature, the researchers placed it in dry ice (-78 C). It held the same ability for conductivity as it did at room temperature.

“I’m not aware of any material, solid or liquid, that has ever behaved like that for ion conduction at low temperatures,” Zdilla said. “This technology could be valuable for battery performance in extremely cold temperatures like space, the deep sea, the Arctic or Antarctica. Even in some more temperate places, it still gets cold enough that regular batteries do not perform well.”

The researchers are confident the technology—once the material is stabilized above room temperature—has the potential to make lithium ion batteries better and safer.

Chemistry students awarded prestigious NSF fellowships

NEW FACULTY 2014 Graham Dobereiner, Assistant Professor Graham Dobereiner obtained his BS in chemistry in 2007 from Brandeis University and his PhD from Yale University in 2011, working in the groups of Robert Crabtree and Scott Miller. While at Yale, Dobereiner focused on the development and the mechanism of homogeneous Iridium-based catalysis. As a postdoctoral research associate in Richard Schrock’s group at MIT, he investigated the catalytic synthesis of nalkyl arenes via alkyl group cross-metathesis.

Katherine Willets, Associate Professor Katherine Willets’ research focuses on the effectiveness of super-resolution imaging techniques. She is PI on two NSF awards and a DOE grant. She is also a co-PI on a $7.5 million grant from AFOSR for electrochemical imaging and mechanistic studies on the nanometer scale. She earned the 2013 Early Career award from DOE. Willets, who earned her PhD at Stanford, comes to Temple from a role as associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

Three Chemistry graduate students were awarded prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program grants in 2014. That program recognizes and supports outstanding graduate students in NSF-supported science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines who are pursuing research-based master’s and doctoral degrees in the U.S. The Department of Chemistry was one of only 31 departments nationwide to receive multiple fellowships and one of only 10 to receive multiple fellowships in organic chemistry. Chemistry’s 2014 NSF Graduate Research fellows are Megan Jennings, CST ’12, Samuel Markson and Christiana Teijaro.

Selected through a national competition, the grantees receive an annual $32,000 stipend and $12,000 cost-ofeducation allowance for three years. Fellows also might be eligible for access to cyber infrastructure resources and international research collaborations.

Teijaro, a member of Associate Professor of Chemistry Rodrigo Andrade’s lab, is working on the synthesis of certain natural alkaloids that inhibit the protein responsible for preventing cancer drugs from passing through cancer cells. “As much as I love teaching, I’m very excited to focus on my research 100 percent,” Teijaro said. “The chemistry department is conducting innovative, quality research that competes with any university.”

Sarah Wengryniuk, Assistant Professor Sarah Wengryniuk’s research interests include organic synthesis and methodology. She comes to Temple from a role as an NIHfunded postdoctoral research fellow at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif. In that capacity, Wengryniuk worked in collaboration with Bristol Meyers-Squibb on late stage functionalization of macrocyclic drug candidates. She earned her PhD in organic chemistry from Duke University in 2012, where she was an NSF Graduate Research Fellow.

Faculty Awards American Institute of Chemists Chemical Pioneer Award Ann Valentine, associate professor, was awarded the 2014 American Institute of Chemists Chemical Pioneer Award at a ceremony at the Chemical Heritage Foundation. The award is “for pioneering contributions to the understanding of the interface of inorganic chemistry and biological chemistry, focusing on the uptake, trafficking, and behavior of hydrolysis prone metal ions, particularly for elucidation of the bioinorganic chemistry of titanium.”

Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award Michael Zdilla, assistant professor, received the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, which supports the careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Administered by the Camille & Henry Dreyfus Foundation, the award provides an unrestricted research grant of $75,000. “We put together a very strong case,” said Zdilla, who was recognized for “Synthesis and Reactivity of Multimetal Systems Inspired by Biology.” He also won the prestigious Office of Naval Research Young Investigator Award in 2013.

Kaufman New Investigator Award William Wuest, assistant professor, was named a recipient of one of the first new investigator awards from the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation. The two-year, $150,000 grant will support Wuest’s research on developing new molecules to function as therapeutics that could inhibit the processes of bacterial biofilms, which cause bacteria to become resistant to antibiotics.

Department of Chemistry Funded Research (partial listing) Rodrigo Andrade

Robert Levis

Daniel R. Strongin

• Asymmetric Synthesis of Strychnos and Aspidosperma Alkaloids, NSF • Discovery of Novel Macrolide Antibiotics, NIH/DHHS

• Filament-Based Raman Detection of Radioactive Materials, Defense Threat Reduction Agency • Multidimensional Detection of Explosive Devices, Office of Naval Research • Nanomaterials by Design, Army Research Laboratory • Shaped Intense Laser Detection and Surveillance, U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command • Strong Field Control of Molecular Processes, NSF

• Astrobiology Biogeocatalysis Research Center at Montana State University, NASA • Complexities Affecting the Rate and Mechanism of Pyrite Oxidation: An Interdisciplinary Approach, DOE • CRC: Structure-Sorption Relation/Iron Oxyhydroxide, NSF • Reactivity of Iron-Bearing Minerals and CO2 Sequestration, DOE

Eric Borguet • A Molecular Resolution Investigation/Electron, NSF • Acid Base Chemistry at the AqueousMineral, American Chemical • Array Piezoelectric Nanocantilever Sensors, Benjamin Franklin Tech Partners • DARPA Project LoCo-4C: Local Control of Material Synthesis Development of a High-Energy, Ultra-Broadband, UltraShort Infrared Laser Source, Division of Chemistry in Directorate for Mathematical & Physical Sciences of NSF • Interface Between Water and a Carbonate Mineral Oxide Model System, ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Company • Passive Wireless Saw Humidity Sensors and Systems, Applied Sensor Research and Development Corp.

Hai-Lung Dai • Molecular Interaction with Colloidal Surfaces Probed by Nonlinear Light Scattering, NSF • Structure and Spectroscopy/Buried Interfaces/Organic, Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Spiridoula Matsika • Combining High Level Ab Initio Calculations/ Laser, DOE • Theoretical Studies of Nonadiabiotic Photoinitiated Processes in Complex Systems, NSF • Understanding Laser Control of Molecular Dynamics, DOE • Quantum chemical methods for studying photoinitiated processes in biological systems, NSF

Yi Rao • Studies of Carrier Generation for High Efficient Photovoltaic Applications, Honda Research Institute USA Inc.

Christian Schafmeister

• NOBCChE Fellowship, GlaxoSmithKline

• Disrupting Protein-Protein Interactions with Bis-Peptides, NIH/DHHS • Investigating Cell Membrane Permeation as a General Mechanism to Promote Bacterial Cell Death: Developing Antimicrobial Bis-Peptides, Cephalon Inc. • Molecular Lego Based Catalysis, Defense Threat Reduction Agency • Towards Durable, High-Flux Water Filtration Membranes, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Michael Klein

Scott Sieburth

• Advanced Modeling of Ions in Solutions, DOE • Building Computational Models to Probe Membrane Fusion, NSF • Development of Drugs that Target the M2 Proton Channel from the Influenza A Virus, NIH (UCSF) • Interaction of Inhaled Anesthetics with Membranes & Membrane Proteins: Insights from Simulation Study, NIH (University of Pennsylvania)

• Silanediols Serine and Threonine Protease Inhibitors, NIH

Franklin Davis • Asymmetric Synthesis of Substituted Tropanes, Biostrategy Partners

Steven Fleming • Bio-organic Reaction Animations, NSF

Steven Fletcher

Francis Spano • Modeling the Optical Properties of Conjugated Polymer Assemblies: Interchain vs. Intrachain Interactions, NSF • Using Circularly Polarized Light to Probe Optical Excitations in Organic Supramolecular Systems, NSF

Robert Stanley

Ronald M. Levy • Computer Simulations of Protein Structure and Dynamics, NIH/DHSS • HIV Interactions and Viral Evolution, Scripps Research Institute

• Photoinduced Electron Transfer in DNA Photolyase, NSF

Ann Valentine • Ascidian Transferrins and the Evolution of Metal Trafficking, NSF

Susan Varnum • Greater Philadelphia STEM Center Summer Science Camp, McKean Defense Group, Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center • Science in the City, NSF • TU-CCP Academic Community/ Expanding Opportunity, NIH

Vincent Voelz • Early Stages of Protein Folding Explored

by Experimental and Computational Approaches, NSF

Bradford B. Wayland • Alkaline Fuel Cell Membrane Design and Synthesis, E.I. du Pont de Nemours • Catalytic Hydrogenation/Carbon Monoxide, DOE • Metal-Centered Radicals and Organometallic Complex, NSF • Tuning of Metal-Centered Radicals for Substrate Activations and Catalysis, NSF

William Wuest • Development of Chemical Probes to Study Nucleoside Signaling in Bacterial Biofilms, Charles E. Kaufman Foundation

Stephanie Wunder • Anion Exchange Polymer Membranes, Hybrid Plastics • Bonding of Lithium Phosphate Glass, Max Power Inc. • Layered Nanolaminated MAX Phases as Anodes for Lithium Ion Batteries, Ben Franklin Technology Partners (Drexel University)

Michael Zdilla • Analogues of the Biological Oxygen Evolving Complex: A Redesigned Approach to Manganese Cluster, NSF • Materials Carbon Monoxide Activation and Lithium Ion Battery Materials, Henry and Camille Dreyfus Foundation Inc. • Nanomaterial’s by Design, Army Research Lab

For more news, go to chem.cst.temple.edu

Non Profit Organization U.S. Postage

PAID

College of Science and Technology 1803 N. Broad Street 400 Carnell Hall Philadelphia, PA 19122

Philadelphia, PA Permit No. 1044

SERC opens

Department hosts MASIS

The Science Education and Research Center (SERC) opened for students and faculty in September and was dedicated on October 10, part of Temple University’s Homecoming Weekend.

SERC will enable the College of Science and Technology and the Department of Chemistry to expand scientific exploration, attract additional research funding and bring new discoveries to market.

The Chemistry Department hosted the fifth—and largest yet—Mid-Atlantic Seaboard Inorganic Symposium (MASIS).

The bi-annual, one-day symposium of high-impact student research attracted 110 students and professors from 13 different colleges and universities including Temple, the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins University, Georgetown University and Bryn Mawr and Swarthmore colleges. For the first time, in an effort to expand the symposium’s size, the event included undergraduate as well as graduate students. The symposium was sponsored

by Jasco, Bruker, ThermoFisher, Strem Chemicals, Chemglass and Airgas.

SERC contains leading-edge labs and classrooms to attract talented scholars and to provide students with abundant opportunities for exploration and investigation. To fully support moving scientific breakthroughs from the lab to the real world, SERC will contain the latest communications, safety, HVAC and other technologies. SERC’s sixth floor will house fully hooded wet lab space for interdisciplinary research in chemistry and biology. Information on SERC at temple.edu/SERC.

All-Alumni Chemistry Reunion and Chemistry of Wine Event/Homecoming Weekend 2014