In this project funded by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, Narayan Hosmane of Northern Illinois University will develop ways to integrate metallacarborane chemistry into a variety of materials. Carboranes are clusters of boron and carbon atoms, and metallacarboranes are formed when the carborane is bonded to a metal ion. When carboranes and metallacarboranes are bonded to supports, the resulting materials could have novel therapeutic, heavy metal remediation or radiation shielding properties. Additionally, the PI will investigate the chemistry of boron nanotubes, a counterpart to the more widely studied single walled carbon nanotubes. During this project, undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral research scholars will be trained in synthetic chemistry and materials science.
In this project funded by the Inorganic, Bioinorganic, and Organometallic Chemistry Program of the Chemistry Division, the Principal Investigator (PI) has developed ways to integrate metallacarborane chemistry into a variety of materials, including nanostructured cages, rods, tubes and magnetic composites. Carboranes are clusters of boron and carbon atoms, and metallacarboranes are formed when the carborane is bonded to a metal ion. When carboranes and metallacarboranes are bonded to supports, the resulting materials should have novel therapeutic, heavy metal remediation or radiation shielding properties. Additionally, the PI has investigated the chemistry of carborane and metallacarborane-appended dendritic structured species as fluorescent molecules. The research on boron nanotubes and nanorods along with boron nitride nanotubes, a counterpart to the more widely studied single walled carbon nanotubes, has progressed to a point where their applications in the real world can be further explored. The use of ionic liquid (IL)-stabilized metal nanoparticles as catalysts, along with the pyridinium salt of iron bis(dicarbollide) as cocatalyst, was investigated for the efficient, robust, and recyclable oxidation of benzyl alcohols and lignin for the production of aromatic aldehydes, thus overcoming the solubility limitation of lignin and favoring its oxidative conversion (www.chemistryviews.org/details/ezine/1997325/Overcoming_the_Solubility_Problem_of_Lignin.html). Unexpected results leading to the formation of few-layer graphene (www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=120965) and its hexagonal boron nitride analogue, h-BN, turned this research of PI to be more exciting and a worthwhile investigation into new area of materials chemistry. While working on these projects, a number of undergraduate and graduate students and postdoctoral research scholars are being trained in synthetic chemistry and materials science. Several undergraduates presented their results at the national and local symposia and/or conferences and received either one of the best poster presentation awards (www.niutoday.info/2012/12/07/niu-biology-student-wins-presentation-award-at-biomedical-research-conference-in-san-jose/) or people choice best poster awards (2010-12) (www.niu.edu/engagedlearning/research/research_day/2010/Awards.pdf; www.niu.edu/engagedlearning/pdfs/2011%20Awards%20Announcement.pdf).
