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Full-Text Articles in Chemistry

Intersections Of Environmentalism, Chemistry, And Racism: An Experimental Study Of Halobenzene Hydrogenolysis And Critical Communication Studies Of Equitable Learning Practices Rooted In Black Feminism, Lauren O. Babb Aug 2022

Intersections Of Environmentalism, Chemistry, And Racism: An Experimental Study Of Halobenzene Hydrogenolysis And Critical Communication Studies Of Equitable Learning Practices Rooted In Black Feminism, Lauren O. Babb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing concentrations of fluorinated aromatic compounds in surface water, groundwater, and soil pose threats to the environment. Fundamental studies that elucidate mechanisms of dehalogenation for C-X compounds (where X represents a halide) are required to develop effective remediation strategies. For halogenated benzenes, previously published research has suggested that the strength of the C-X bond is not rate-determining in the overall rate of dehalogenation. Instead, the rate-determining step has been hypothesized to be adsorption of the C-X compound onto the surface of a catalyst. Building on this hypothesis, in this work, we examine the reaction kinetics of fluorobenzene conversion to benzene, …


Synthesis And Evaluation Of Water-Dispersed Aryl-Gold Nanoparticles And Applications In Catalysis, Ahmad Al Ahmad Aug 2022

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Water-Dispersed Aryl-Gold Nanoparticles And Applications In Catalysis, Ahmad Al Ahmad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gold nanoparticles have been used in environmental remediation as catalysts through biological and chemical redox reactions of many types of industrial waste including nitroarenes, organic dyes, carbon monoxide, and others. These reactions occur in harsh environmental conditions (e.g. changing temperature, presence of salts, extreme pH solutions) which require robust nanoparticles that can keep their activity and resist aggregation. This thesis describes the synthesis, characterization, and investigation of the catalytic activity of gold-aryl nanoparticles. Gold–aryl nanoparticles (AuNPs-COOH) fabricated using a mild reduction process of a molecular aryldiazonium gold(III) salt [HOOC-4-C6H4N≡N]AuCl4 showed high stability in the presence of high ionic strength salt, …


Solvent Effects In Phenol Hydrogenation On A Supported Ruthenium Catalyst, Daniel Mckeon May 2022

Solvent Effects In Phenol Hydrogenation On A Supported Ruthenium Catalyst, Daniel Mckeon

Honors College

Growing concerns around climate have piqued interest in using biobased alternatives in place of fuels and chemicals traditionally made from petroleum. Lignocellulosic biomass has been noted for its potential as a biobased chemical precursor in the context of a biorefinery. It can be pyrolyzed to yield an oil, but catalytic upgrading is required to lower oxygen content to suitable levels. Ruthenium supported on titania has been identified as a catalyst suitable for hydrodeoxygenation of oxygenated aromatic pyrolysis products in the liquid phase. In liquid phase reactions, intermolecular attractions between the solvent and the reactants can significantly change chemical activities and …


Modelling The Filling Of Methane In Heterogenous Pore Networks, Samuel Bonnevie May 2021

Modelling The Filling Of Methane In Heterogenous Pore Networks, Samuel Bonnevie

Honors College

In the field of heterogeneous catalysis, there is great interest in the transport properties of ordered mesoporous materials such as SBA-15, but inverting quasi-elastic neutron scattering data for materials with a distribution of pore sizes such as SBA-15is an ill-posed problem. This project aimed to generate an idealized model of methane adsorption in the pores of SBA-15so that in the future, molecular dynamics simulations can be used to study diffusion.By sampling over a canonical ensemble using the Metropolis Monte Carlo Method and using Widom’s insertion method alongside Vaitheeswaran and Rasaiah’s insertion/removal method to calculate the chemical potential, isotherms comparable to …


Understanding Biomass Upgrading Through Hydrogenolysis Reactions: Kinetics And Mechanism, Jalal Tavana Dec 2020

Understanding Biomass Upgrading Through Hydrogenolysis Reactions: Kinetics And Mechanism, Jalal Tavana

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involves several hydrogenolysis reactions but is mainly focused on hydrodechlorination (HDC) of chlorobenzene (PhCl) and hydrodeoxygenation (HDO) of 2-furancarboxylic acid (FCA). Hydrodechlorination of PhCl has been the subject of research for some time. Here, we used a Pd/C catalyst to study this reaction though rigorous kinetics and mechanistic analyses in a CSTR reactor. The H2/D2 kinetic isotope effect (KIE) experiment revealed that H2 is not involved in a rate controlling step. The kinetics data are in agreement with similar systems reported before and follow a first-order dependence on chlorobenzene, half order for hydrogen and …


Creating Renewable Tunable Polymers From Hydroxymethylfurfural, Meredith C. Allen Aug 2017

Creating Renewable Tunable Polymers From Hydroxymethylfurfural, Meredith C. Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The research here deals with the conversion of 5-hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) into a tunable polymer. HMF is a known derivative that can be acquired from biomass via hydrolysis of cellulose followed by isomerization and finally selective dehydration. The process considered here is being developed to create tunable polymers from HMF and involves several different steps, three of which are covered here. The first step, an etherification, is the reaction of HMF with an alcohol. This step is significant because in this step the R-group from the alcohol is added to HMF and the branching portion formed is carried over to the …