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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry

A Chemical And Historical Analysis Of Beer: Discovering Brewing Styles And Beer Stages, Alexander Taylor '24 May 2024

A Chemical And Historical Analysis Of Beer: Discovering Brewing Styles And Beer Stages, Alexander Taylor '24

Honor Scholar Theses

This interdisciplinary project is designed to explore both the compositional qualities of beer during the brewing process and its impact on society from a cultural, economic, and social viewpoint. Comparing various styles of beer against each other in a historical, societal, and chemical lens allows for a deeper understanding of what creates a beer’s identity, and what makes it different from other styles. Here we analyzed two different styles of beer, a bock lager and a saison ale, in order to determine their chemical composition through their developmental stages to their final product. Based on previously published research and extended …


The Surface Chemistry And Binding Interactions Of Lignin With Polymer-Encapsulated Gold Nanoparticles Acting As Model Microplastics, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Akinsola Jan 2024

The Surface Chemistry And Binding Interactions Of Lignin With Polymer-Encapsulated Gold Nanoparticles Acting As Model Microplastics, Oluwaseun Ayodeji Akinsola

All Master's Theses

This study investigates the surface chemistry and molecular-level interactions between lignin, a special type of natural organic matter, and polymer-capped gold nanoparticles, shedding light on the strength of adsorption between lignin and nanoscale polymer surfaces. Specifically, the study presents a variety of nanoscale polymer surfaces displaying different charged functional groups, using layer-by-layer assembly of three polyelectrolytes (polyallylamine hydrochloride (PAH)), polyacrylic acid (PAA), and poly(diallyldimethylammonium chloride (PDADMAC)) on 90 nm citrate-stabilized gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). This approach provides a library of polymer-encapsulated AuNPs for investigating the binding interactions of lignin to nanoscale polymers via spectroscopic techniques. ζ-potential, dynamic light scattering (DLS), …


Validating Machine And Human Decision-Making In Forensic Fire Debris Analysis, Frances A. Whitehead Jan 2024

Validating Machine And Human Decision-Making In Forensic Fire Debris Analysis, Frances A. Whitehead

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This work presents a background on the chemical complexity of fire debris analysis, including an ever-present matrix of pyrolysis products as the catalyst that led to the creation of the National Center for Forensic Science's Fire Debris Database. A selection of these 1,000+ casework-relevant ground truth samples was used to create two newly proposed analyst workflows to connect the current method of categorical reporting with evaluative reporting practices reflective of the strength of the evidence. Both workflows use linear sequential unmasking to help mitigate bias, a discrete scoring system for quantification of the analysis, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves …