Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense

Nolan McNeill
Michael Haley and Darren Johnson Labs

Thursday, August 8th, 2024
12pm in 110 Willamette Hall 
and via ZOOM

The title of his thesis is  “Substitution and Analysis of Additional Heteroatoms in 1,2λ5-Azaphosphinines”

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Upcoming Thesis Defense

Doug Banning
Darren Johnson Lab

Monday, August 5th
10 AM in 110 WIL and via ZOOM

The title of his thesis is “Fresh Quantitative Approaches for High-Throughput Characterization using ChemFETs and Statistical Analysis”

Up next: Doug will be serving as Director of Operations for the Air Force Drug Testing Lab in San Antonio, Texas

Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense

Yang Zhao
Boettcher Lab

Friday, May 31, 2024
10:00 am via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom Link

The title of her thesis is “Fundamentals of Electrochemical Interfaces: Insights into Electrodes, Electrolytes, and Ion Transfer Kinetics”

Up next: Yang will start a postdoc position at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Chemistry and Biochemistry Department
Upcoming Thesis Defense

Jacob McKenzie
Brozek Lab

Thursday, May 9, 2024
3:00pm in 240A Mckenzie Hall
and via ZOOM
contact Chemistry and Biochemistry office for Zoom Link

Thesis title and abstract:
“Charge Transport Phenomena in High Surface Area Materials”

While the design of conductive metal organic frameworks (MOFs) and other framework materials for energy storage have seen a major surge in recent years, there are still fundamental questions that remain unanswered. With literature abound describing ion and solvent dependent conductivity in mesoporous media and nonporous conductive polymers we expect such phenomena to be heightened and unique at the interfacial extremes that microporous materials, and 2D Van Der Waals materials possess. We utilize the unique properties of Fe based materials to design model systems in the microporous TMA₂FeGe₄S₁₀ (TMA: tetramethyl ammonium) and 2D Van Der Waal structure, Fe(SCN)₂(pyz)₂ to study the impact of solvent and electrochemically inert ions on charge transfer and transport. Taken together, this dissertation describes for the first-time substantial solvent and ion interactions at interfacial extremes, which can’t be neglected in the design of future energy storage technologies, critical to combating increased CO₂ emissions from fossil fuel combustion.