Chemistry Commons^™

Combination Nanomedicines For Cancer Therapy, Noureen Siraj

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Nanomedicines derived from combination ionic nanomaterials (INMs) offer synergistic therapy for effective treatment of cancer. This approach addresses the limitations of conventional treatment options and offers active targeting of tumors due to EPR effect

Study Of Solvent-Free, Microwave-Assisted Ring-Opening Reactions Of Phenyl Glycidyl Ether With Azoles, Marygrace Mcafee, Joshua Pack, Brian Walker

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Literature precedent supports that microwave-assisted organic synthesis can afford fast, high-yield, and efficient synthetic pathways, often comparable to or better than traditional heating methods. Building on this, our work utilizes microwave-assisted synthesis for the epoxide ring opening of phenyl glycidyl ether through nucleophilic addition, aiming to create both pyrazole and imidazole derivatives. These heterocyclic azole compounds have been shown to be important due to their presence in many natural products, as well as their anti-fungal and other pharmacological activities. We are exploring the use of microwave irradiation under neat (solvent-free) conditions, focused on a streamlined approach to minimize time, energy …

Women In Stem Conference, Maryann Rettig, Sara E. Hubbard Ph.D

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Analysis of BPA Leaching from Feminine Hygiene Products into Simulated Vaginal Fluid using Fluorescence Spectrophotometry

Maryann Rettig and Sara E. Hubbard, Ph.D.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical compound commonly used to produce several plastics and epoxy resins. Recently, BPA has also been detected in feminine hygiene products. Because of a structural resemblance to estradiol, BPA can act as an endocrine disruptor, which has linked BPA to several health complications such as cancer development, reduced fertility, and early puberty. In recent summer research at Ouachita Baptist University, it was determined that fluorescence spectrophotometry could be used to monitor BPA leaching over …

Predicting The Reactions Of Cs2, Ocs, And Co2 With Group Iv And Group Vi Transition Metal Oxides, Marissa Shea Blair, Zachary Ryan Lee Phd, David A. Dixon Phd

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Building on a recent serious of high level electronic structure studies of Lewis acid gas reactions with metal oxide sorbents, DFT (B3LYP and ωB97X-D) and CCSD(T) methods are being used to predict the Lewis acid-base addition (physisorption) and formation of metal oxide carbonate/thiocarbonate formation (chemisorption) reactions of CS2, OCS, and CO2 of CS2, OCS, and CO2 with Group IV (MO2)n and Group VI (MO3)n (n = 1 - 3) nanoclusters. For the Group IV oxides, chemisorption to form terminal carbonates and thiocarbonates is predicted to be the most favored, with thiocarbonate ligand binding energies slightly more exothermic than their carbonate …

Determining The Ideal Concentrations Of Ethanol And Propylene Glycol In Ethosomes For Transdermal Delivery Of Vitamin D3, Rebecca Conner

Harrisburg University Research Symposium: Highlighting Research, Innovation, & Creativity

Vitamin D₃ is an important chemical in the human body, however, many Americans have low levels of this vitamin. There are plenty of oral supplementations for Vitamin D₃ deficiency, but those of older age and busy schedules may struggle to meet the minimum requirement. A recently developed ethosomal transmembrane delivery system (Touitou, 2000), similar to liposomes but also containing ethanol, allows users to apply a gel dermally and have the desired drug or active ingredient reach the bloodstream faster. However, there is considerable variation in the concentration of ethanol and permeation enhancers used. Using an affordable method to …

Carbon Nanotubes Animated, Nicholas Onyemeke

Chemistry Summer Fellows

In this project, I implemented the knowledge about carbon nanotubes into an animated short. The animated short is meant to simplify the research so that anyone can understand regardless of their background in science. The research I did was on how nanotubes can be used in the medical field as a measure to inhibit bacteria growth. A nanotube dye solution was synthesized to inoculate bacteria along with an antibiotic solution with the nanotubes. This was done to observe how well the nanotubes can inhibit bacteria growth without the need for a drug compared to the effectiveness when it has a …

A Comparative Study Of Specific Enthalpy Of Aromatic Hydrocarbons With Simple Carbohydrates, Kohl D. Kervin, Subha Pratihar

ATU Research Symposium

Calorimetry is an aspect of chemistry primarily focused on determining the enthalpy of reactions (∆Hrxn). In the bomb calorimetry technique, the heat of combustion of chemical compounds can be measured experimentally. From this data and the application of Hess’s Law, ∆the Hrxn of several chemical reactions can be determined. The technique of bomb calorimetry can be applied to food, fuels, pharmaceuticals, and many other fields. The objective of the present project is to determine the specific enthalpy of various simple carbohydrates (naturally occurring sugars) through bomb calorimetry and compare it with that of aromatic hydrocarbons.

By performing benzoic acid standardization …

Chemical And Biological Investigation Of Sambucus Canadensis And Salvia Officinalis, Elizabeth Martin, Harley Hines, Amber Parnell

ATU Research Symposium

New treatments for cancer and bacterial infections are needed, especially because most patients acquire resistance to conventional first-line treatments. Many natural product metabolites exhibit potent activity. Sambucus sp.,elderberry, and Salvia sp., or sage, are well-known shrubs for their therapeutic benefits. This study aims to analyze how secondary metabolites are extracted from the Native American Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, and Sage, Salvia officinalis. It also aims to investigate the process of vinegar baking of medicinal plants to enhance the chemical space and increase the biological properties. Vinegar-baked and non-vinegar-baked elderberries and sage were utilized to test this theory. A Soxhlet …

Bis(Difluoroborylamidinates) With Flexible Ethylene Bridges As Bifunctional Aggregation-Induced Emitters, Connor Welch

Symposium of Student Scholars

4,4-Difluoro-4-bora-3a,4a-diaza-s-indacenes (BODIPYs) represent one of the most prominent classes of dyes, since they are ubiquitously used in protein and DNA labelling, photodynamic therapies, as luminescent tags, sensors, laser dyes, paint and ink compositions, as well as for electroluminescent devices. [1] This is because of their robustness in terms of photochemical stability, polarity and pH changes of their environment, in particular under physiological conditions. The versatility to introduce multiple functional substituents and ability of BODIPYs to strongly absorb UV-light while providing sharp fluorescence peaks, combined with high quantum yields make these dyes highly attractive for numerous applications. Closely related azaBODIPYs offer …

Study Of Protein Extraction Techniques For M. Foliorum Phages, Lola Sibaud, Anna Elgersma

Student Academic Conference

Characterizing phages is becoming increasingly important in biochemistry and biotechnology due to their potential to treat bacterial infections without need for antibiotics. Last year, students attempted to isolate proteins from Microbacterium foliorum infecting phages Babydotz and Rosadiaz. Proteins were successfully extracted; however, after further analysis it was shown that the obtained proteins belonged to the host bacteria and not the phages. The purpose of this study was to find a method to separate phage from host bacterial debris to successfully isolate phage proteins and analyze them later. Isolating phage proteins could help us characterize more phages and know more about …

Survey Of The Performance Of 5 Nm Gold Nanoparticles Within An Ssdna-Stabilized Biosensor For The Detection Of Hg2+, Madalyn Zagajowski

Scholar Week 2016 - present

The formation of a fluorescent biosensor complex consisting of 5 nm diameter gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) was conducted using a low-cost, efficient binding method. Furthermore, we assessed the analytical potential for the complex to detect mercury ions (Hg²⁺) in an aqueous solution upon collection of UV-vis and fluorescence spectrometry data for the AuNP-ssDNA complex. We aimed to investigate this potential due to the possibility that the nanoparticles formed utilizing this method would produce nanoparticles of too small a size to result in detectable fluorescence, thus the complex synthesized from this specific method was qualitatively evaluated …

Swelling Studies Of Poly(Ionic Liquids) In Different Solvents And Salt Solutions, Pierson Perdue, Ali Alshaikh, Creighton Baltier, Jason E. Bara, Sourav Chatterjee

Scholars Week

Poly(ionic liquid)s (PILs) represented a special class of polymers, which comprised of a polymeric backbone and ionic liquids (ILs) species in each monomeric repeating units. PILs has properties that combined the properties of ionic liquids (ILs) (i.e., high conductivity, better thermal and chemical stability, and tailor-made functionality) with the intrinsic properties of polymer (i.e., mechanical stability). This synergistic property makes PILs a good candidate for various applications such as stable-ion conductors, membranes for gas separations and sorbents. In the past, it was shown that PILs are capable of swelling when dissolved in different ILs but there are few literature reported …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Semi-Interpenetrating And Double Networks Of Sulfonimide- And Imidazolium-Containing Poly(Ionic Liquids), Jeremiah Coughlon, Seth Taylor, Jason Bara, Kevin Miller, Sourav Chatterjee

Scholars Week

In recent years, there has been increased research interest in creating electrically conductive polymer membranes with materials that are widely available and environmentally safe. Herein, we report how polymeric membranes comprised of unique combinations of ionenes and poly(ionic liquids), including a recently developed sulfonimide- and imidazolium-containing methacryloxy-based monomer, were produced via UV photopolymerization. These membranes were specifically tailored to exhibit both ionic conductivity and an affinity for carbon dioxide, which are both crucial characteristics in such applications as electron transport in lithium-ion batteries and gas sorbency in separation techniques. Monomers, such as the aforementioned methacryloxy-based ionic liquid (IL) and C4VIm, …

Physiochemical Properties Of Urethane-Containing Ionic Liquids And Ionenes From A Non-Isocyanate Synthetic Approach, George Timmermann

Scholars Week

Ionic polymers that are designed to contain ionic liquids (ILs) in their backbones have been shown to exhibit a high degree of variability through changing the type of ionic character and the location of the ionic region within the molecule. This large amount of variability in both the structure and characteristics of ILs allows researchers to design task-specific ionic polymers and ILs for a variety of applications including gas separation membranes and solid polymer electrolytes. The synthesis of a specific class of ILs and ionenes through the incorporation of urethane groups with imidazolium rings by reacting carbonyl diimidazole with various …

Strategies For Identifying Important Residues In The Trna Modification Protein Trm732, Alex K. Mullins, Natalie N. Creech, Holly Funk, Michael Guy

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Post-transcriptional tRNA modifications are required for efficient protein translation. In yeast, the Trm7 methyltransferase forms a complex with Trm732 to modify tRNA at position 32. In humans, lack of the human homolog for Trm7, FTSJ1, causes intellectual disability. Little is known about the function of Trm732, although we have shown that one conserved motif in Trm732 is important for tRNA modification. We have identified other residues important for function using two strategies. First, we compared Trm732 proteins of different organisms using protein alignments to determine conserved regions to mutate for testing. We have generated four new Trm732 variants and have …

Determination Of Nitrate In Aqueous Media, Ebony Arauz Tellez, John Bohannon, Rebecca Mills, Virginia Tam, Isabelle Villarreal, Melissa C. Rhoten

Spring Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Determining the amount of inorganic ions in aqueous media is important in the food industry and environmentally. In the environment high levels of ions like nitrate (NO₃^-), nitrite (NO2^-), and phosphate (PO₄^3-) can lead to unhealthy conditions for aquatic species. Similarly, high levels of nitrate and nitrite can cause health issues in humans. One method for determining nitrate levels in aqueous samples involves reducing the nitrate species to nitrite via a redox reaction with finely divided zinc powder followed by conversion to a diazonium salt and complexation with 1-napthylamine to form a …

Is It Useful? Orthophosphate Mapping Of An Excavated Cellar Of A Mid 1700’S Tavern In New London Va, Thomas M. Bender, Randy Lichtenberger

Faculty Publications and Presentations

The partially backfilled cellar of Mead’s Tavern (VDHR # 015-0120) a circa 1760’s building in New London Virginia, was studied by orthophosphate (PO₄³) mapping of the recently exposed, culturally sterile, subsoil floor. Prior studies of the cellar had exposed a hearth along with features that were speculated to be wall partitions for subdivision of the cellar. The full intended purpose for those exposed features is unknown. To further probe that exposed subsoil prior to a major engineering stabilization of the tavern’s foundation, a chemical mapping of surface PO₄^3- levels in the cellar was done. The …

Corrosion Prevention Of Aluminum Alloy, Andrea Brenner

Symposium of Student Scholars

Aluminum alloy (Al-alloy) is a widely used metal in construction, aerospace, aviation, and other necessary fields due to its lightweight and tweakable properties. However, corrosion is inevitable on metals and alloys, and that causes millions of dollars of revenue loss every year. Therefore, we propose to research fabricating coating to prevent corrosion on Al-alloy. This study uses an iron-based metal-organic framework (MOF) and polyurethane (PU) based composite coating to prevent corrosion on the Al-alloy. The makeup of the composite material is changed by varying the percentage of MOF. In addition, a binder is also used to enhance the homogenization between …

Casein Kinases Are Required For The Stability Of The Glucose Sensing Receptor Rgt2 In Yeast, Danny Bloor

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

Synthesis Of Molecularly Imprinted Polymer For The Detection Of Perfluorooctanoic Acid, Yuqi Wang, Hannah Rhodes

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

Inhibiting Nitroso Related Methylation Of Guanine Using Dietary Supplements And Flavonoids, Hannah Klose, Madeline Mccoy, Mary Hall

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

The Effect Of Coca-Cola™ On Fresh And Latent Blood Stains, Brittany Johnson, Bethany Smith, Katie Steigerwald, Rachel Eberle

Liberty University Research Week

Graduate

Basic

Utilization Of Solid-State Catalysis For Screening Of Peroxidase Library, Zachariah Hutcheon, Alexa Deckert

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

Synthesis And Characterization Of 5,6-Fused Ring Pyridazines, William Hobbs, Joshua Bird, Stephen Carter

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

High-Performance Liquid Chromatography Analysis Of Common Adulterants, Madison Landreth, Elijah Deyoung, Jedidiah Black, Lynza Osorio

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

Synthesis Of Re(Co)3[1,2-C5h3(Coc4h3s)2], Chloe Vernon, Ryan Renfro, Wilmar Janusz

Liberty University Research Week

Undergraduate

Basic

Probing Small Heat Shock Protein Chaperoning Activity Through The Interaction Between Myoglobin And Guanidine Hydrochloride, Jacob Mcdowell

Celebration of Research

Myoglobin is a small biological protein found in most muscle tissues. When in the proper form (native/folded), myoglobin can serve its primary function: binding oxygen. However, like all proteins, myoglobin can denature through a variety of processes into a form that no longer binds oxygen. One denaturant, guanidine hydrochloride (GuHCl), is the biological product of protein metabolism. Another class of biological proteins is small heat shock proteins (sHSPs), which have the function of chaperoning other proteins to prevent the denaturing process. Previously, in physical chemistry lab, we explored the GuHCl-induced denaturing of myoglobin. Former Northwestern students used fluorescence correlation spectroscopy …

Room Temperature Phosphorescence Material For Use In Low-Cost Lighting Technology, Mujeebat Bashiru

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Light is a key element in our daily lives. An environment with eye catching navigation to offices, lecture halls and buildings is very essential in a high citadel of learning since the campus will always be occupied by students or diverse group of people trying to make way into their respective destination. Herein, the goal of the project is to investigate multifunctional carbazole compounds with ease of tunability to design, develop, and characterize (including basic understanding of the essential chemical and physical phenomena), using prompt and inexpensive methods. More specifically, photodynamic properties of newly designed carbazole-based cored compounds with room …

Combination Chemo-Pdt Ionic Nanomedicines As Enhanced Therapeutics For Cancer, Samantha Macchi

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Cancer remains as one of the leading causes of death in humans worldwide. Nanotechnology has made great strides in improving treatment for the disease. This work describes a simplistic approach to design self-assembled combination nanomedicines. A facile one-step ion exchange reaction is utilized to combine a chemotherapeutic (phosphonium) cation and photodynamic therapeutic (porphyrin) anion. An aqueous nanomedicine is prepared from the hydrophobic ionic combination drug via a single-step reprecipitation method. Upon conversion to ionic combination drug, improved photophysical properties of porphyrin were observed. These characteristics subsequently led to increased photodynamic therapeutic activity of nanomedicines—explained by greater singlet oxygen quantum yield. …

Surface Area Enhancement Of Doped Carbon Materials Via Novel Freeze-Pore Methodology, Iris Denmark

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Supercapacitors are one of today’s growing means of alternative energy. They are portable, produce much higher capacitance than traditional capacitors, and operate under lower voltages than that of batteries. Herein, we have synthesized a series of supercapacitor materials from sodium lignosulfonate, otherwise known as lignosol, which are co-doped with phosphorus and nitrogen. The materials are synthesized utilizing a green and time-efficient microwave irradiation process. Subsequently, these materials have been optimized by utilizing a novel process by which surface area and electrochemical properties is enhanced by freezing of their porous surface. Materials undergoing this method have shown significant increase in BET …