Chemistry Commons^™

Developing Covalent-Organic Frameworks For Protecting Against Radiation, Megan J. Francis

Senior Theses

This research focuses on the development of lightweight, thermostable dual-function materials for secondary radiation protection and sensing by the integration of hydrogen-rich aliphatic chains inside the porous matrix of covalent-organic frameworks (COFs). The main aims of this project are the synthesis of organic linkers for forming a robust porous COF, synthesizing the porous COF through a condensation reaction, the development of hydrogen-rich aliphatic chains, and integration of aliphatic chains into COFs through click chemistry. This manuscript outlines the methodology and development of a novel self-assembled crystalline, porous material engineered to combine the functions of a shield and sensitive dosimeter. The …

Applications Of Organic Probes For Imaging And Analysis Of Different Cancer Cell Models, Hong Guan

Theses and Dissertations

Novel techniques for better studying cancer cell behavior and progression are extremely important. Our lab is interested in synthesizing specifically designed organic reagents and applying them in the studies of cancers. In this dissertation, we used organic probes to investigate cancer cells in the following topics: determination of amino acid concentration in different types of cancers, tumor toxicity of organic probes towards HER2 positive breast cancer cells, glycoproteins identification in breast cancer cells and development of enzyme activity assay for colon cancer cells.

The first chapter was focused on the determination of cysteine/homocysteine concentrations using turn-on sensors in cancer cells. …

Facile Method For Large Scale Alignment Of One Dimensional Nanoparticles And Its Biomedical Application, Sheng Feng

Theses and Dissertations

Topographical cues can profoundly affect cellular behaviors. This thesis investigate how to utilize the topographical cues generated by two techniques, flow assembly and electrospinning, to regulate cellular behaviors.

First of all, a facile and robust method to align one-dimensional (1D) nanoparticles (NPs) in large scale has been developed. Using flow assembly, representative rod-like nanoparticles, including tobacco mosaic virus (TMV), gold nanorods and bacteriophage M13, have been aligned inside capillaries by controlling flow rate and substrate surface properties. The properties of 1D NPs, such as stiffness and aspect ratio, play a critical role in the alignment. Furthermore, these hierarchically organized structures …

Impact Of Ocean Acidification On Aphotic Biogeochemical Production Of Reactive Oxygen Species, Sarah Ann Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are critical to global maintenance of the global organic carbon cycle, sulfur cycle, oxygen cycle, and transition metal cycles. The primary source of ROS is commonly considered to be photolysis or photochemically driven reactions, however ROS also exist in aphotic zones. A geochemical mechanism for the same in dark environments based on the tidally driven, episodic movement of anoxic groundwaters through oxidized, Fe(III) rich sediments is shown. Predictive models were developed based on in vitro experiments and tested using sediment samples collected from a saline tidal creek in the estuary at Murrell’s Inlet, South Carolina. These …

Silylation-Based Kinetic Resolution Of Α-Hydroxy Carbonyl Compounds And Synthesis Of Chiral Isothiourea Catalysts, Yan Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis describes the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds catalyzed by isothiourea catalyst as well as our effort to make novel chiral isothiourea catalyst.

In Chapter 1, general background will be introduced, including chirality, general methods to obtain enantiopure compounds and kinetic resolution. In Chapter 2, the mechanism of the chiral recognition was discussed and a novel isothiourea catalyst was design to investigate the mechanism. The synthesis of the new catalyst was also described in this chapter.

In Chapter 3, the silylation-based kinetic resolution for α-hydroxy carbonyl compounds will be discussed. Since silylation-based kinetic resolution have already been …