The articles is about a study of the response of six NIR aza-BODIPY-based and structurally similar fluorophores to polarity and viscosity for incorporation inside Pluronic nanoparticles as switchable fluorescent probes (SFPs). Based on their results, all of these fluorophores were moderately to strongly sensitive to the polarity of the microenvironment. They concluded that attaching amine groups to the fluorophore is not necessary for having strong polarity sensitive probes.

This article developed a simple photochemical method for making conjoined bi-metallic gold-silver (Au/Ag) nanotwins, a new breed of nanoparticles.

Article discusses how hybrid organic–inorganic formate perovskites, AB(HCOO)3, are a large family of compounds that exhibit a variety of phase transitions and diverse properties, such as (anti)ferroelectricity, ferroelasticity, (anti)ferromagnetism, and multiferroism. While many properties of these materials have already been characterized, the authors seek to focus on the comprehensive property assessment of a large number of formate perovskites.

Presentation on using a flipped course format and including an open textbook, OpenStax: Chemistry 2e. Flipped courses provide lecture content that is accessible online, and they use class time for active learning activities. It is a part of 2022 University of North Texas Open Access Symposium that was held on March 8, 2022.

Article develops a double divergent process for the reaction of α-enaminones with quinones through facile manipulation of catalyst and additive, leading to structurally completely different products.

Article examining the mechanism of Glutathione synthetase, an enzyme that belongs to the glutathione synthetase ATP-binding domain-like superfamily. A variety of structural alignment methods were applied and four highly conserved residues of human glutathione synthetase (Glu-144, Asn-146, Lys-305, and Lys-364) were identified in the binding site. The function of these was studied by experimental and computational site-directed mutagenesis.

Article describes how the selective removal of the β-emitting pertechnetate ion (99TcO4−) from nuclear waste streams is technically challenging. In this article, a practical approach is proposed for the selective removal of 99TcO4− (or its surrogate ReO4−) under extreme conditions of high acidity, alkalinity, ionic strength, and radiation field.

Data management plan for the grant "Functional Porous Organic Polymers as Advanced Decontamination Materials for Water Purification." This project seeks to develop and deploy a new class of porous organic polymers which have high capacity and selectivity to rapidly remove heavy metal contaminants well below parts per million level standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. The project will engineer porosity and surface chemistry of porous organic polymers to clean inorganic heavy metal contaminants from both surface water and wastewater. Porous organic polymers are robust, chemically and thermally stable, scalable, and modular, with very high surface area. The modularity of these polymers allows for a molecular-level tuning of the pore structure and surface chemistry that allows for engineered site-specificity of binding sites that target the heavy metal contaminants. Recent data shows these new materials offer a significant increase in capacity relative to benchmark materials, with a rapid removal of mercury and other heavy metal ions. This project will advance the concept by exploring rational design of these porous polymers with different topologies by customizing the monomer with various binding groups. The objectives of the project include design, synthesis, and characterization, followed by assessment of these materials to remove inorganic contaminants …

Article discussing further analyses of the recent report (by Sandeepa et al.) on the solubility of benzoic acid in six monosolvents (i.e. tributyl phosphate, diacetone alcohol, methyl-n-propyl ketone, methyl acetate, amyl acetate, and isooctane) and five binary systems (i.e. ethanol + hexane, isopropyl alcohol + hexane and chloroform + hexane, acetone + hexane, and acetone + water) along with some numerical analyses. The reported calculations have been reanalyzed based on combined nearly ideal binary solvent/Redlich-Kister, the modified Wilson model, general single model, Jouyban–Acree model and Jouyban–Acree–van’t Hoff model. The investigated models provide good estimation of the solubility behavior of benzoic acid in the binary solvent mixtures at various temperatures.

This article reports on the reanalysis of reported calculations on solubility data of 2-chloro-3-(trifluoromethyl)pyridine in binary ethanol + 1-propanol solvent mixtures at various temperatures, and several additional points regarding the correlations.

This article uses the relative rate method to determine the rate constant for the reaction of heptafluorobut-1-ene (CF₂=CFCF₂CF₂H) with chlorine atoms in air.

Article describes how crystalline porous materials such as covalent organic frameworks (COFs) metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) and porous organic changes (POCs) have been widely applied in various fields with outstanding performances. In this work, the authors developed a general approach comprising high pressure homogenization (HPH), which can realize large-scale synthesis of crystalline porous materials including COFs, MOFs, and POCs under benign conditions.

Article presenting a systematic parametrization protocol for the Self-Consistent Continuum Solvation (SCCS) model resulting in optimized parameters for 67 non-aqueous solvents. The parametrization is based on a collection of ≈6000 experimentally measured partition coefficients, which were collected in the Solv@TUM database presented here. The accuracy of the optimized SCCS model is comparable to the well-known universal continuum solvation model (SMx) family of methods, while relying on only a single fit parameter and thereby largely reducing statistical noise.

Article analyzing the lipids in transgenic zebrafish. Separating RFP+ and GFP+ thrombocytes from the GloFli fish developed here led to the analysis of their lipid composition.DiI-labeled liposomes with similar PE and PC concentrations found in RFP+ thrombocytes explained DiI labeling of thrombocytes.

This article uses molecular dynamics simulations and experimental point mutations to probe the role of S-loop residues in tertiary structure, substrate binding, and allosteric communication.

Article describes the high-quality, 887-Mb genome of jojoba assembled into 26 chromosomes with 23,490 protein-coding genes.

This article reports global warming potentials (GWPs) for all C₁-C₃ hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) based on estimated atmospheric lifetimes and theoretical methods used to calculate infrared absorption spectra.

This article creates a green strategy to fabricate a highly crystalline olefin-linked pyrazine-based covalent organic framework (COF) with high robustness and porosity under solvent-free conditions. This study opens up new possibilities for the green synthesis of advanced materials and provides important guidance for the rational design and synthesis of polymeric materials for proton-exchange membrane fuel cell applications.

Article discusses how, although acids are extensively used in contemporary industries, time-consuming and environmentally unfriendly processes hinder single-acid recovery from wastes containing various iconic species. The authors rationally designed a membrane with uniform angstrom-sized pore channels and built-in charge-assisted hydrogen bond donors that preferentially conducted HCl while exhibiting negligible conductance for other compounds.

Article presenting a consistent set of recommendations to express the proportionality coefficient, “Henry’s law constant” of Henry's law.

Article develops Trichoderma reesei (Hypocrea jecorina) as a microbial cell factory for the heterologous expression of fungal secondary metabolites.

This article reports the preparation and characterisation of the simple dppn complex,[Fe2(CO)4(κ2-dppn)(µ-edt)], together with an investigation of its proton-reduction ability.

Authors of the article describe how autoignition delay times of ammonia/dimethyl ether (NH3/DME) mixtures were measured in a rapid compression machine with DME fractions of 0, 2 and 5 and 100% in the fuel. Analysis of the mechanism indicates that this 'early DME oxidation' generates reactive species that initiate the oxidation of ammonia, which in turn begins heat release that raises the temperature and accelerates the oxidation process towards ignition. This is the accepted manuscript version of the published article.

Video from the Fall 2018 3 Minute Thesis (3MT®) Final Competition. In this video, Muthappan Asokan presents his research methods, findings, and its significance in non-technical language.