Chemistry
Professor Patrick Charbonneau's collaborations with French scientists are solving the glass-problem. Read more about this work in an interview with Professor Charbonneau on the Office for Science & Technology at the Embassy of France in the United States' webpage here. read more about Charbonneau's Transatlantic Collaboration Highlighted »
The transformation of the free-energy landscape from smooth to hierarchical in glassy materials can significantly impact their low-temperature properties. With 30 pages of handwritten calculations Sho Yaida, a Duke postdoctoral fellow in the Charbonneau lab, has laid to rest a 30-year-old mystery about the nature of this transformation. The work was just published in Physical Review Letters. Learn more on Duke TODAY. read more about 30-year-old Mystery on the Glass Problem Demystified »
Congratulations to Professor Warren S. Warren, the 2017 Liversidge awardee. Warren has been recognized by the Royal Society of Chemistry for his pioneering use of nonlinear optical imaging to extract molecular information, methodology he has applied to a wide range of important problems. To read more on Professor Warren and the Liversidge award, please see the RSC's announcement here. read more about Prof. Warren Receives 2017 RSC Liversidge Award »
Congratulations to our 39 undergraduate chemistry majors and 23 graduate students whose degrees were joyously conferred on May 14! Learn more about these outstanding scholars here. read more about A Celebratory Commencement »
Four Chemistry faculty have received funding from the University's Energy Initiative Research SEED Fund. Professors Franklin, Liu, Wiley and Yang have received funds to support research projects that explore new possibilities for energy storage, reliability, and sustainable development. Read more on their proposed projects on Duke Today. read more about Four Chemists Receive Energy Seed Funding »
A cartilage-mimicking material created by the Wiley Lab may one day allow surgeons to 3-D print replacement knee parts that are custom-shaped to each patient’s anatomy. Feichen Yang, a graduate student in the Wiley lab, experimented with mixing together two different types of hydrogels -- one stiffer and stronger, and the other softer and stretchier -- to create what is called a double-network hydrogel. By changing the relative amounts of the two hydrogels, Yang could adjust the strength and elasticity of… read more about Printable Hydrogel Matches the Strength and Elasticity of Human Cartilage »
Congratulations to Ms. Patricia Johnson who has been selected to receive a 2017 National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship. The NDSEG Fellowship is sponsored and funded by the Department of Defense (DoD). Funding will provide an opportunity for Patricia to create new mechanical responses based on changes in metal ligand coordination under the guidance of Professor Stephen Craig. Congratulations, Patricia! read more about Graduate Student Receives National Defense Fellowship »
Chemistry major John Lu has been named a 2017 scholar by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Program. John is among 240 students awarded Goldwater Scholarships for the 2017-18 academic year. The one- and two-year scholarships go toward covering the cost of tuition, fees, books, room and board. The Goldwater Scholars were selected on the basis of academic merit from a field of 1,286 nominated mathematics, science and engineering students nationwide. Virtually all scholars intend to… read more about Chemistry Major John Lu Receives 2017 Goldwater Scholarship »
Congratulations to Michael Dibble (PI: McCafferty), Katie Hatstat (PI: McCafferty) and Alexandria Weber (PI: Malcolmson), recipients of prestigious Graduate Research Fellowships by the National Science Foundation which will fund their PhD research. These national awards will give Michael, Katie and Allie greater freedom to take on new and high impact projects in which they are interested. In addition, several students were recognized by the NSF with Honorable Mentions: Jack Ganley,… read more about Three Students Win National Graduate Fellowship Awards »
David Beratan has won the Florida Award of the ACS! David will receive the award during the 2017 Florida Annual Meeting and Exposition (FAME 2017), held May 4-6, 2017 at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club near Tampa, FL, where a special symposium will be held in his honor. Prior Duke Chemistry awardees include pioneering colleagues Paul Gross (1952) and Charles Hauser (1957) and Weitao Yang (2014). Congratulations, David! read more about David Beratan Wins 2017 ACS Florida Award! »
Congratulations to Prof. Patrick Charbonneau who has been named as one of 2016 Journal of Chemical Physics top reviewers in recognition of outstanding service and dedication to the journal. See more on this here. read more about Patrick Charbonneau named JCP Top Reviewer »
The reliance on heated catalysts to overcome high activation energies and achieve practical reaction rates in industrial scale catalysis not only requires high thermal energy inputs but also shortens catalyst lifetime. By comparing light and dark conditions on rhodium catalysts in carbon dioxide hydrogenation, the Liu lab, together with Dr. Henry Everitt at the Army Aviation & Missile RD&E Center and Yang group in our department, has shown how the plasmonic behavior of rhodium nanoparticles profoundly improves their… read more about Lighting the Path Towards Selective Carbon Dioxide Hydrogenation »
USB flash drives are already common accessories in offices and college campuses; but thanks to the rise in printable electronics, digital storage devices like these may soon be everywhere – including on our groceries, pill bottles and even clothing. The Wiley Lab has brought us closer to a future of low-cost, flexible electronics by creating a new “spray-on” digital memory device using only an aerosol jet printer and nanostructure inks. The device, which is analogous to a 4-bit flash drive, is the first… read more about Wiley Lab Develops Spray-On Memory for Digital Storage »
The Cottrell Scholar program recognizes "the very best early career teacher-scholars in chemistry, physics and astronomy” in the country. As a 2017 Cottrell Scholar, Professor Hargrove will receive $100,000 to support her teaching and research efforts, which involve the use of small molecules to study RNA structure and function. Please visit the Research Corporation for Science Advancement's webpage to read the full announcement. read more about Professor Hargrove Receives 2017 Cottrell Scholar Award. »
The high temperatures (>200 °C) required to melt silver nanoparticle inks together to make conductive lines has limited the development of printed electronic devices, such as RFID tags, on low-cost, heat-sensitive paper and plastic substrates. By comparing the resistivity of films made from silver nanostructures with different shapes, the Wiley lab has shown that films of silver nanowires are 4000 times more conductive than the conventionally used silver nanoparticles after drying. In fact, films of silver… read more about Shape Matters for Printed Electronics »
The Hargrove Lab has demonstrated that small molecule ligands can be used to classify RNA secondary structures through shape-based discrimination and that topology is an essential component for selective binding of RNA by small molecules. Read more in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. read more about Hargrove Lab Uses Pattern Recognition to Discriminate RNA Secondary Structure with Small Molecules »
Professor Emily Derbyshire was awarded a Marion Milligan Mason Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The award recognizes promising young women faculty in the chemical sciences and helps them kick-start their academic careers by providing them with research support as well as leadership and mentoring opportunities. Congratulations to Professor Derbyshire! To read the AAAS announcement, please click here. read more about Derbyshire Receives 2017 AAAS Award »
The latest iteration of Chem89S - Chemistry and Physics of Cooking - uses the newly renovated West Union for its kitchen-lab space. A few undergraduate students making soft toffee, which requires controlling the crystallization of sugar-based materials, are featured in the recent Duke Magazine (pg. 14) featuring the new kitchen. To make soft toffee of your own, please see the recipe here. read more about Chem89S - Chemistry and Physics of Cooking in the new West Union »
Professor Jennifer Roizen has been chosen as a 2017 Thieme Chemistry Awardee. The award, which is given by the editorial boards of Synlett, Synthesis, and Synfacts, recognizes promising young faculty at the beginning of their career. Congratulations, Jenny! read more about Professor Roizen Chosen as a 2017 Thieme Chemistry Awardee »
The Fitzgerald group and their collaborators at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences find that house dust mite allergens are more thermodynamically stable and more abundant than non-allergens in the dust mite proteome. Read more about their discovery in Duke Today and also see their paper published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. read more about Fitzgerald Group Characterizes Dust Mite Allergens with SPROX Methodology »
The Ph.D. dissertation by Stacey McDonald, a former graduate student in the Wang group, has recently been selected for Springer Theses series. The Spring Theses series annually publishes the best theses from internationally top-ranked research institutes. The series has been a valuable resource for researchers seeking background information on special research topics. Dr. McDonald's thesis may be found here. Congratulations to Dr. McDonald and Professor Wang! read more about Wang Alumna Selected for Springer Theses »
Congratulations to Yusong Bai, a graduate student in the Therien lab, for receiving the American Chemical Society's Division of Physical Chemistry Outstanding Student Poster Award. Yusong's poster, "Molecular Road Map to Tuning Ground State Absorption and Excited State Dynamics of Near-infrared Chromophores" was presented at the 252nd National Meeting in Philadelphia in late August read more about Yusong Bai Receives ACS Poster Award »
Most solid materials are amorphous. Although the behavoir of these materials is anomalous when compared to crystalline solids, the origin of the difference has long been a source of confusion. The Charbonneau group and collaborators have recently found evidence for an exotic phase transition that might underlie the effect. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. read more about Gardner Gathers Glasses »
The Department of Chemistry is pleased to congratulate the recipients of the 2016-2017 Fellowship Awards: Joe Taylor Adams and Kathleen Zielik Brian Langloss (Therien Group) Charles Bradsher Irem Altan (Charbonneau Group) Burroughs Wellcome Brett Hemric (Wang Group) Nana Kim (Widenhoefer Group) Kangnan Li (Malcolmson Group) Paul M. Gross Qiwei Han (Liu Group) Christine Kim (Liu Group) C.R. Hauser Hyeri… read more about Congratulations to the 2016-2017 Departmental Fellowship Recipients! »
Professor Jennifer Roizen is taking lectures out of the classroom, with the assistance of Duke's Center for Instructional Technology. Please see the Duke Today article highlighting Open Organic Chemistry as well as a number of CIT's Massive Open Online Course projects. read more about Professor Roizen Takes Education Beyond the Classroom »
Professor Beratan’s group has just reported a new mechanism for spin-forbidden excitation energy transfer, a process of great significance in solar photochemistry. The group finds that spin forbidden electronic energy transfer, known as Dexter energy transfer, may be mediated by excited states of the bridge linking an electronically excited donor to an acceptor group (indicated by the blue and green squares in the diagram), rather than by charge-transfer states of the system (indicated by the gray and oranges… read more about Solar Photochemistry Breakthrough Reported by Beratan Group »
A theoretical-experiemental collaboration between David Beratan’s group at Duke University and Nongjian Tao’s group at Arizona State University has established and validated an approach to control the wave-like characteristics of electrons as they move through DNA. A paper just posted online at Nature Chemistry - and highlighted in a Duke News article - describes strategies to sustain coherent or wave-like DNA charge transport on the the length of multiple nanometers in soft-wet self-assembled matter. … read more about Beratan and Collaborators show how DNA sequences turn molecules into electron highways »
An article in Science by Prof. Agostino Migliore and collaborators reports the design of robust (opto)electronicmolecular switches. The experiments demonstrate reversible, stable and reproducible electrical switching of single molecules linked to graphene electrodes. The theoretical analysis reveals the chemical-physical underpinnings of photoinduced and temperature-dependent mechanisms for the observed switching. This work provides unambiguous evidence that molecules with suitable electronic properties and engineered… read more about Breakthrough in Nanoelectronics: Design of Robust Molecular Switches »
Brett Hemric, a member of the Wang Group, has received a travel award from the American Chemical Society's Division of Organic Chemistry. Brett will present his research at the 252nd American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia this August. Congratulations, Brett! read more about Brett Hemric Receives Travel Fellowship »
The first annual STEMmy Awards were celebrated on Wednesday, May 25 at RTP Headquarters. The award recognizes organizations, individuals and partners of RTP for their contributions in making the STEM fields more accessible to under-represented minorities. Dr. Lyle received a STEM Mentor of the Year Award for his meaningful interactions with youth while fostering the STEM fields. read more about Dr. Ken Lyle Receives Mentor Award »