Physical Sciences and Mathematics 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

New Ways To Improve Dispersibility Of Nanotubes: Approaching From The Formation Of Silicon Nanoparticles By High Energy Reactive Ball Milling (Herbm) In Polar Solvents, Julie P. Vanegas, Yolanda V. Gutierrez, Joaquin Rivera, Juan García Jr.

Research Symposium

Background: This research aims to synthesize stable silicon nanoparticles using different molar ratios of N-Cyclohexyl-2-pyrrolidone (CHP) and Silicon to demonstrate if there is any significance towards the production of effective nanotubes. To determine this, the synthesized nanoparticles will be characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), UV visible absorption spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL).

Methods: 50 Mg of silicon wafer are added with differing ratios of ligand (CHP), 5mL of water, and 3 steel iron balls into a ball milling vial. Vials are then placed into a ball milling apparatus for 7 cycles or 3.5 hours. Once the cycles are complete, …

Synthesis And Properties Of Bio-Based 3d Printable Resins, Cameron Woods, Seth Taylor, Jeremiah Coughlon, Turner Perdue, Sourav Chatterjee, Jason E. Bara

Scholars Week

A photopolymer resin is a monomer that, when introduced to light of a certain wavelength, starts to polymerize into a solid. This has become a growing part of the 3D printing industry. There have been many advancements in the field of 3D printing, however, a lot of these resins are not environmentally friendly and even harmful if not handled in the correct manner. Plant based resins are becoming more and more popular because of their biodegradability and for the possibility of using renewable resources. Glycerol is a plant-based compound that is produced in excess in industry. Glycerol obtained from bioethanol …

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 …

Dual Ionic Liquid-Functionalized Cellulosic Materials: Thermal, Mechanical And Conductive Properties, Elizabeth Mcgrew, Kevin M. Miller Phd

Posters-at-the-Capitol

Cellulose, an inexpensive and renewable biomacromolecule, represents an intriguing synthetic foundation for new materials with task-specific properties. Here, we wish to report a synthetic route for functionalizing cellulose with a side chain containing two ionic liquid functional groups using azide-alkyne ‘click’ cyclization strategy, followed by quaternization of the two resulting heterocycles (1,2,3-triazole and imidazole). Through this functionalization strategy, the resulting cellulosic materials exhibited significant softening, with several glass transition (T_g) values observed below room temperature, indicating the amorphous nature of the materials, with the T_g dependent on both the length of the side chain and the …

Investigating The Electrochemical Behavior Of Dihydropyrrolopyroles For Use As Anodically Coloring Electrochromes, Perry Skiouris, Ally Kisiel, Valentino Sorto, Julia Mauro, Graham Collier

Symposium of Student Scholars

Electrochromic materials have found widespread use in consumer electronics, energy saving windows, and military applications. They contain unique electronic properties allowing them to undergo a color change in a redox reaction. One classification of these molecules is known as anodically coloring electrochromes (ACEs). When in solution, these compounds are transmissive in the neutral (ground) state and absorb visible light upon oxidation, by the formation of a radical cation, thus making them colored. The focus of this study is the electronic transitions of this radical cation and how chemical modifications to the structures produce a variable color profile. To design prospective …

Fabrication Of Gold Nanoraspberry Arrays By Soft Lithography, Christy Yu-Qing Xie

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Nanostructures and nanoparticles have garnered increasing interest over the past decade due to their unique properties and applications. These properties include localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) and allow for surface modification. We can tune these properties depending on the nanoparticle’s size, shape, and geometry.

This work aims to fabricate plasmonic platforms through patterning gold nanoparticles (raspberries) by microcontact printing, a simple and cost-effective soft lithography technique. This is done through large-scale patterning using polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) stamps to pattern an adhesion template and spatially guide the adsorption of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs).

Optimization Of The Synthesis Parameters Of Sapo-34, Adam Honchar

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

A microporous material known as SAPO-34 is a very efficient catalyst in methanol-to-olefins reactions. My project aimed to optimize synthesis parameters of SAPO-34 to reduce crystallization time in order to study the formation mechanism using In-situ NMR spectroscopy. Understanding the crystallization mechanism would allow us to make it more efficient and tailor-made to fit for other applications.

Contact Angle & Electrochemical Measurements Of Metallic Atmospheric Corrosion On Copper And Carbon Steel, Jacob J.M. Bunting, Jiju M. Joseph, Heng-Yong Nie, Samantha M. Gateman

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Understanding atmospheric corrosion has been incredibly challenging due to the complex interplay between surface microstructures, environmental variables, and electrochemical processes. The methodology presented is being developed to apply to atmospheric corrosion models of metals and other advanced materials by observing the change in contact angle in situ as a function of corrosion parameters. Performed contact angle measurements on two industrially relevant metals (copper and carbon steel) over a 1 min to 30-day time span to track the change in wettability due to the formation of an air-formed oxide layer (aged) as a function of surface roughness.

Synthesis And Characterization Of A Novel Reaction-Based Azaborine Fluorescent Probe Capable Of Selectively Detect Carbon Monoxide Based On Palladium-Mediated Carbonylation Chemistry, Samuel Moore, Carl Jacky Saint-Louis

Symposium of Student Scholars

Azaborines are fascinating compounds because they possess valuable properties such as photochemical stability, have high molar absorption coefficient and high fluorescent quantum yields, as well as large Stokes shifts and tunable absorption/emission spectra. Here, we designed, synthesized, and will examine a novel reaction-based azaborine fluorescent probe capable of selectively detect carbon monoxide (CO) based on palladium-mediated carbonylation chemistry. This novel azaborine fluorescent probe will exhibit high selectivity for CO and display a robust turn-on fluorescent response in the presence of CO in aqueous buffer solution.

Ketal-Azaborine Versus Ketal-Azaborine With A Spacer: Structural Effects On The Photophysical Properties Of Tunable Heteroaromatic Polycyclic Chromophores, Albert Campbell, Janiyah Riley, Samuel Moore, Albert Campbell

Symposium of Student Scholars

Flat-structured heteroaromatic polycyclic compounds with extended conjugated π-systems such as azaborines are in high demand in the material and imaging technology markets because of their unique features such as simultaneous tunability of fluorescence color and intensity. We have designed, synthesized, and investigated a series of novel conjugated thermally stable ketal-azaborine chromophores that contain a phenyl ring as a spacer between electronic moieties and the ketal-azaborine core as easily tunable high-luminescent organic materials. We investigated the impact of the phenyl spacer on the ketal-azaborine unit. We examined the structural effects on their photophysical properties by incorporating electron –donating and –withdrawing substituents …

Azaborine Versus Azaborine With A Spacer: Structural Effects On The Photophysical Properties Of Tunable Azaborine Chromophores, Kaia Ellis, Janiyah Riley, Lyric Gordon, Janiyah Riley

Symposium of Student Scholars

Azaborines are fascinating compounds because of their valuable and interesting optical properties making them suitable to be utilized in many optoelectronic devices. We have designed, synthesized, and investigated a series of novel conjugated thermally stable azaborine chromophores by incorporating a phenyl ring as a spacer linking the chromophore to different electronic moieties as easily tunable high-luminescent organic materials. We investigated the effect of the phenyl spacer on the azaborine unit. The substituent effects of different electronic moieties were investigated by the insertion of electron –withdrawing and –donating moieties to the phenyl spacer. We examined the role of the electron –donating …

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 …

High Speed Impact On Graphene Composites, Giovanny A. Espitia

Symposium of Student Scholars

Since the isolation of Graphene occurred in 2004, numerous studies attempting to exploit the properties of this carbon allotrope have been conducted. Graphene exists in a 2-D manner with sp2 bonds, which provides the allotrope with great electrical, conductive, and mechanical properties. In this paper however, we will focus on the latter in order to examine the feasibility of graphene composites for bulletproof material in the military. Pure graphene sheets count with high porosity density that leads to structural defects as well as poor mechanical properties due to physical contact being sole retainer. For this reason, the selected composite is …

Activated Carbon Pore Expansion Using Acidic Hydrothermal Method, Max Thompson

Symposium of Student Scholars

Petroleum Coke is a widely abundant, high carbon content material produced as a byproduct of the oil refining process. Its abundance makes the price per ton low and it is produced in almost all regions of the world. Due to the low price and high carbon percentage, commercial companies make large amounts of activated carbon using petroleum coke as a precursor. These activated carbons are characterized by their high surface area and can achieve widely varying pore morphology with different activation processes. The goal of this work is to achieve a homologous mesopore activated carbon material for use in super …

Solid-State Redox Synthesis Of Layered Birnessite-Type Manganese Dioxide (Δ-Mno2) As Aqueous Supercapacitor Electrodes, Armando Rodriguez Campos

Symposium of Student Scholars

Nanostructured manganese dioxides are attractive cathode materials in aqueous supercapacitors due to their low cost, environmental benign nature, high theoretical gravimetric capacitance, and power in neutral aqueous electrolytes. In this work, a layered birnessite-type manganese dioxide (δ-MnO₂) is synthesized utilizing solid-state redox method with superoxide. The effects of temperature and oxidant amount on the physicochemical properties of δ-MnO₂ are characterized using Elemental Dispersion X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), N₂-sorption, and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The physiochemical properties that are specifically analyzed by varying synthesis conditions pertain to the chemical composition, morphology, and surface area …

Structural Tuning Of Two-Dimensional Perovskites At High Pressure, Lauren A. Diloreto

Undergraduate Student Research Internships Conference

Two-Dimensional Perovskites are semiconductors and are of interest to researchers as the class of materials show great promise for innovating improvements to solar cells. The purpose of this experiment is to determine if a metastable change will occur in the materials: DPDAPbI4 and CMA2PbI4 upon compression to approximately 9 GPa. The experiment was conducted using diamond anvil cells (DAC) to apply static pressure to the materials. The pressure of the sample was then measured using ruby fluorescence. Then, FTIR or Raman spectroscopy acquisitions were obtained at various pressures. Subsequently, the data suggests that a metastable change did not occur. Additionally, …

Comparison Of Chalk Types And Their Ghosting Effects, Felicienne Alexandre, Shoshanna Coon, Kirk Manfredi

Summer Undergraduate Research Program (SURP) Symposium

Chalkboard ghosting is a faint image on a chalkboard's surface after writing is erased. Many types of chalk leave a positive image, while the Crayola An-du-septic Anti-dust chalk leaves a negative image. To better understand what cause the ghosting effects, two different types of Crayola chalk (regular and anti-dust) were investigated. Raman spectroscopy and infrared (IR) spectroscopy were used to determine the majority material the chalk was made of, by comparison with pure substances. To identify the organic compound binders holding the chalk sticks together, pulverized chalk was immersed in 40 mL of toluene for at least 30 minutes. After …

041— Fiber Decomposition And Pretreatment Analysis Of Cannabis Sativa L.: Hemp, Dina Bu, Jessica Roggie, Sarah Schmidlin, Barnabas Gikonyo

GREAT Day Posters

Hemp is a subspecies of Cannabis sativa L. along with marijuana, yet the two differ in chemical constituent levels of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Hemp contains 0.3% THC, compared to marijuana 17.1%, allowing it to be a safe and compelling biomass for investigation. The refined products of hemp are vast due to its fast-growing properties; therefore various commercial industries have included refined hemp in biofuels, biodegradable plastics, textiles, dietary supplements, paper, clothing, and much more. Construction and manufacturing applications have also been seen to include hemp to strengthen their composite products. The high-yielding, sustainable, and environmentally friendly qualities …

006— Pretreatment And Fiber Content Analysis Of Cannabis Sativa, Dina Bu, Jessica Roggie, Sarah Schmidlin, Barnabas Gikonyo

GREAT Day Posters

Cannabis sativa commonly known as hemp is one of the fastest-growing plants whose refined products have immense commercial value. Various products include refined hemp such as: biofuels, biodegradable plastics, textiles, dietary supplements, paper, clothing, and much more. Hemp fibers are also used in construction and manufacturing applications by strengthening their composite products. Hemp is a high yielding, sustainable, and environmentally friendly crop due to its various qualities, and has the potential to yield valuable raw materials for a great number of applications. Our research evaluates the pretreatment of hemp as well as the comparative analysis of the fiber content thereof. …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Mps And Mes Capped Cdse Nanoparticles, William Josul

Ramaley Celebration

Over the past several years, interest in nanoparticle-derived solar cells has increased. This is due to their low material cost, high-potential efficiency, and desirable and tunable optical properties. Using biphasic ligand exchanges, sodium 3-mercapto-1-propanesulfonate (MPS) and sodium 2- mercaptoethanesulfonate (MES) were successfully exchanged as ligands with oleic acid to create particles that have a higher propensity to move charge in a solar cell. MES and MPS were chosen as ligands due to being shorter and less insulating than oleic acid. The initial as-synthesized CdSe-OLA, and the nanoparticle products of the two ligand exchanges were confirmed by 1H NMR, UV-Vis, and …

Carrier-Free Chemo-Ptt/Pdt Ionic Nanomaterials For Combination Cancer Therapy, Samantha Macchi

Arkansas Women in STEM Conference

Herein, we describe a carrier-free combination nanodrug for treatment of cancer. In this work, we combined a photothermal compound and a chemotherapeutic drug using ionic liquid chemistry. We utilized a facile, one-step metathesis approach to replace the counter cation of a near infra-red (NIR) dye (photothermal agent) with a chemotherapeutic cation to synthesize an ionic material-based combination cancer therapy drug to deliver multiple mechanisms simultaneously. The nanodrugs were developed by using a reprecipitation method. The detailed photophysical properties of this new combination therapy molecule was investigated in ethanol solution as well as in nanoparticles forms in aqueous media. The singlet …

Investigating The Presence Of Bpa In Infant Oral Hygiene Products Using Fluorescence Spectroscopy, Kaleigh Casada, Sara Hubbard

Scholars Day Conference

Bisphenol-A (BPA) is a chemical found in hard plastics. BPA is an endocrine disruptor as it binds to estrogen receptors. This is linked to negative health effects such as cardiovascular disease and developmental issues. Infants and young children are more at risk of these effects because their endocrine systems are not fully developed. For this project, toothbrushes were investigated to determine if they contained BPA. BPA is a fluorescent compound with an excitation wavelength of 278 nm and an emission wavelength of 304 nm, so an FS-5 spectrofluorometer from Edinburgh Instruments was used to determine the presence of BPA in …

Performance Of Concrete Made With A Calcined Clay – Limestone-Portland Cement Exposed To Natural Conditions, Fernando Martirena, Ernesto Díaz, Dayran Rocha, Hamed Maraghechi, Karen Louise Scrivener

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

This work presents the results of an investigation carried out to assess durability of concrete made with a calcined clay- limestone-Portland cement with 47% of clinker, hereafter named LC3, produced during an industrial trial in 2013. LC3 was used to cast concrete blocks and later expose them at a natural location at the northern coast of Cuba. Reference concrete was cast with Cuban Portland cement having 88% of clinker. Throughout three years (2015, 2016, 2017) concrete cores were systematically taken and the specimens were subjected to a testing program that included Formation factor, chloride profiling, surface resistivity, air permeability and …

Photoswitchable Self-Complementary Hydrogen Bond Arrays, Suendues Noori, James A. Wisner

Western Research Forum

Background: Photochromism is the reversible transformation of a chemical material to another form by the absorption of electromagnetic radiation (light), where the two metastable forms have distinct absorption spectra and other properties. Photochromism in materials allows for the switching of their function solely based on irradiation with light. Polymers are used frequently as the building blocks for materials as they are versatile, multifunctional, can carry charge and be processed by solution-based deposition methods. Supramolecular polymers share the same definition as polymers with the exception that they are held together by reversible and directional non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonds. Synthesizing …

Evaluating The Scalability Of Graphene Synthesis, Evan Dexter

Scholar Week 2016 - present

Graphene is a new material, first isolated in 2004, consisting of one to a few atomic layers of carbon in a lattice sheet structure. Graphene has high tensile strength, high surface area, very low electrical resistance, and various other special properties that make it an excellent material for use in emerging technologies in the categories of electrical components, energy systems, and high strength applications. The production scale of graphene sheets and its variations is currently limited to laboratory use, with a great amount of current research going into the development of manufacturing techniques of the material. I conducted experiments to …

Synthesis Of A Hydrophobic/Hydrophilic Nano-Patterned Metal-Organic Framework Material, Daniel Pivaral

Kansas State University Undergraduate Research Conference

Metal-Organic Framework (MOF) materials are supramolecular structures that are formed from the assembly of organic molecules that[AL1] have multiple binding sites with compatible metal cations. The resulting structure is a uniform and porous 3D grid-like with metal vertices that are connected by organic linkers. MOFs have several potential uses such as catalysis, detection, and gas storage, and new strategies to synthesize functional MOFs continue to be developed. One strategy is post synthetic modification (PSM), a process where different chemical groups are grafted onto the organic linkers via chemical reaction. The main objective of this research is to demonstrate that …

Toward Unraveling The Mechanisms Of “Green” Mechanochemical Reactions, Richard Chen, Mehmet Kerem Gokus

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The mechanical processing of solids, such as milling or grinding powders, often leads to mechanochemical reactions. Mechanochemistry affords “green” synthetic routes avoiding or reducing the use of solvents, thus providing environmentally friendly and cost-effective synthetic alternatives for many materials. The solid-state reactants are usually ground together with small quantities of organic solvents, called “liquid assisted grinding” (LAG). LAG increases the reaction rates, it can yield products from otherwise unreactive mixtures, it increases the products crystallinity, and it selectively leads to crystal structures (polymorphs) of the products, depending on the quantities and physicochemical properties of the liquids used in LAG.

Mechanochemistry …

Examining The Effects Of Amino And Thiolate Ligands On The Reactivity And Selectivity Of Palladium On Carbon In Hydrogenation Reactions, Eric Liu, Christina Li

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Heterogeneous catalysts are used widely by chemical and energy industries because they show high reactivity but often suffer from lack of selectivity. On the other hand, ligands are commonly used in homogeneous catalysts to control the reactivity and selectivity; however, the effects of the ligands on the steric and electronic properties of heterogeneous catalysts are less understood. We examine the effects of four different ligands: 1-adamantanethiol, 1-adamantylamine, 1-dodecanethiol, and 1-dodecylamine, for the commercial hydrogenation catalyst palladium on carbon. Hydrogenation reactions are used as a screening tool to see the behavior that the different catalysts exhibit in the presence of unsaturated …

The Effect Of Semiconductor Materials On Solar Cell Efficiency, Shivam Vohra

The International Student Science Fair 2018

The purpose of this project was to increase the efficiency of solar cells through the use of quantum dots and nanoparticles. These substances would increase the efficiency of the semiconductor. The research hypothesis stated that if lead iodide was applied to the semiconductor, then the average voltage, amperage, power, and efficiency of the solar cells would increase. The procedure for this project involved creating a lead iodide and titanium dioxide mixture with dimethylformamide, ethanol, acetylacetone, and Triton X-100 in an autoclave. Then, two milliliters of each solution were applied to cadmium selenide quantum dots to make four different solutions. Each …