This is a Faculty Early Career project, the research part of which deals with titanium dioxide as a photooxidation catalyst for environmental remediation by degradation. The project will study the organic intermediate buildup and decay during titanium dioxide catalyzed photooxidation. Many groups have studied titanium dioxide for the present purposes but the usual approach is to investigate the initial step and to assume that subsequent intermediates are rapidly mineralized. Use of titanium dioxide with dilute solutions of toxics (as in the real world one must) will leave intermediates largely to decay spontaneously and the biological consequences will only be known when the nature and concentrations of the intermediates are known. The project will be one of only a few, and the only led by a synthetic chemist, using this approach. The educational work centers on making students more active participants in the learning process. Dr. Jenks will develop undergraduate laboratory experiments along the lines of this research. In this project the intermediates in one possible future technology, catalyzed light-induced decomposition of organic environmental contaminants, will be studied. The project will provide information from which the possibility of introduction of biohazards will be studied. The project will also emphasize student-centered learning and the integration of this research into undergraduate laboratory teaching.
