Sharma Group Research Highlighted in Spectroscopy Newsletter

September 19, 2018 by Kayla Benson

Research in the Sharma lab was recently highlighted in an online Spectroscopy newsletter for using SERS and SESORS to detect neurotransmitters and probe subsurface layers through the skull. She describes the advantages of these techniques and how they are used in biological applications.

Sharma explains, “SERS is advantageous in that it provides very rapid sample analysis time versus other techniques including HPLC, mass spectrometry (MS), and fluorescence. SERS also involves little to no sample preparation, no necessary labeling, and results in a “molecular fingerprint” for each analyte even for analytes with very similar chemical structures, making identification more straightforward.”

The research goal is to “establish limits of detection for various neurotransmitters that are commonly known to be involved in specific neurological diseases and then to detect these neurotransmitters in the brain.”

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Dai Receives Two Prestigious Awards

September 17, 2018 by Kayla Benson

The Department of Chemistry would like to extend congratulations to Sheng Dai for recently receiving two prestigious awards for his work. He was recently named the recipient of the highly sought-after 2019 ACS Award in Separations Science & Technology AND The International Mesoporous Society’s 2018 IMMA Award. He was bestowed these honors for his significant and sustained contributions to our current knowledge of porous materials and ionic liquids for energy-related separation.

His research has significantly impacted both the synthesis and characterization of these unique materials for a number of separation processes and energy storage. He is an internationally recognized expert in the synthesis and characterization of porous materials and ionic liquids for separation chemistry and was included in the 2015 Thompson-Reuters list of the world’s most influential chemists. His work includes publishing more than 600 peer-review papers, 28 patents, and according to the h index of 94 based on Web of Science (as of Sept. 16, 2018), his papers have been cited more than 36,000 times.

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Roy and Lebeis Receive NSF CAREER Awards

September 12, 2018 by Kayla Benson

The College of Arts and Sciences is excited to add Sharani Roy and Sarah Lebeis to a particularly exclusive group of honorees. They join the ranks of those having been selected to receive a coveted National Science Foundation CAREER award. This esteemed early-career honor is bestowed upon promising young faculty who show exceptional potential in their field and are devoted to higher education. This award also provides a 5 year grant to help fund their research. With the addition of Roy and Lebeis, the department will have accrued 11 of these high honors.

“NSF CAREER awards are designed to prepare tenure-track faculty for a lifetime of outstanding research and education service,” said Drew Haswell, research coordinator for the college.

Sharani Roy is an assistant professor of chemistry that specializes in surface chemistry. Her research attempts to develop newer, more accurate methods of studying surface chemistry that extend beyond previous concepts of molecular dynamics simulations. In addition to developing courses on computational chemistry, surface chemistry, and scientific computing, she has partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to organize a symposium on surface chemistry.

Of the almost 800 applicants in her category, Roy was one of about 170 chosen for funding. In Lebeis’s category of approximately 400, fewer than 50 were selected.

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Xue Group Research Published in Nature Communications Journal

July 25, 2018 by Kayla Benson

Xue group research article “Spin–phonon couplings in transition metal complexes with slow magnetic relaxation” is now published in Nature Communications, a highly reputable journal. Papers published by the journal aim to represent important advances of significance to specialists within each field. Their innovative research spectroscopically reveals and quantitates the spin–phonon couplings in typical transition metal complexes and sheds light on the origin of the spin–phonon entanglement.

Xue group research is centered on three areas: (1) Spectroscopic studies of molecular magnetism; (2) Synthesis and characterization of transition metal complexes; (3) Development of new chemical analyses. Both fundamental chemistry and applications are studied. For this open-access article, Duncan Moseley and Shelby Stavretis in their group conducted research.

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Barnes Wins Fulbright to Conduct Research in Czech Republic

July 10, 2018 by Kayla Benson

When Carolyn Barnes started college, she had her heart set on attending medical school. As she progressed through courses in biology and chemistry, however, she discovered a different career path.

“I realized my interest in medicine was more focused towards understanding the cellular and molecular processes that cause humans to have diseases and illness rather than just treating those diseases,” says Barnes, a senior in chemistry and member of the Chancellor’s Honors Program.

Barnes was first introduced to the field of lipid and membrane chemistry during her junior year. In 2017, she studied at Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany. In 2018, she has the opportunity to study in the Czech Republic thanks to a Fulbright Award.

“I am excited to experience the Czech Republic and be immersed in the culture while also pursuing research I find really interesting,” says Barnes, who will study the dynamics of pancreatic cells involved in insulin release.

Insulin is the hormone that controls blood-sugar levels in the body. When a person loses control of releasing insulin it affects the body’s ability to control blood-sugar level, which in turn, causes diabetes. Barnes became interested in this line of research when she learned about a friend’s experience being diagnosed with juvenile diabetes.

“Type II diabetes accounts for 90 percent of diabetes cases worldwide, but the molecular mechanisms of this are very poorly understood,” Barnes says. “We hope this research will allow us to differentiate the effects of several different types of fat on insulin secretion from pancreatic cells.”

Barnes, who is from Knoxville, started working in labs at UT as a senior in high school. Since her arrival at UT, she has worked in several labs and learned different aspects of research and collaboration. She fell in love with the lab atmosphere and the research she conducts when she began working with Michael Best, professor of chemistry.

“The field of lipid chemistry is diverse and has a lot of applications that have only begun to be investigated,” Barnes says. “I enjoy the atmosphere in a lab where those who surround you have the same thirst for knowledge and the desire to discover something that might change the world.”

Dai Receives Grant for DoE Battery Project

June 26, 2018 by Kayla Benson

The need for extreme fast charging capabilities in the electric powered transportation industry has prompted the US Department of Energy (DOE) to allocate $19 million to new cost-shared research projects. The focus is to advance battery and vehicle electrification technologies to make widespread commercial utilization realistic. The three main industry challenges they look to overcome are cost of ownership, charge time, and range.

In order to compete with the efficient refueling methods and established infrastructure of traditional combustion systems, DOE aims to attain specific performance benchmarks for each of the three criteria. By 2028, they want to reduce 10-year battery pack costs to under $100 per kilowatt-hour, increase their range to over 300 miles, and be able to charge in under 15 minutes.

The University of Tennessee’s Sheng Dai submitted a proposal for his research on TiNb2O7 based lithium ion batteries and received a $720,000 grant to continue that work. Dai claims, “Commercial lithium ion batteries using graphite as an anode can easily result in lithium plating during extreme fast charging, leading to fast battery fading and safety issues. TiNb₂O₇ (TNO) has a high theoretical capacity of 387 mAh g-1 with an average operation voltage of 1.66 V vs. Li/Li+, which is far from the lithium plating voltage, therefore, the TNO-based lithium ion batteries are much safer than graphite based ones for transportation applications, particularly for extremely fast charging applications.” In this project, the University of Tennessee (UTK) will collaborate with Dr. Xiaoguang Sun and Jianlin Li at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) to develop TNO and nickel-rich lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) based lithium ion batteries for extreme fast charging applications.

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