Dr. Sergiy Rosokha
<b>Department: </b>Chemistry<br><b>Research Area: </b>Intermolecular Interactions<br>
Research Focus: My research is focused on intermolecular interactions. These interactions occur when chemical species just touch each other, and they allow molecules to recognize each other in chemical and biochemical systems, determine how they react and affect the properties of the materials formed when molecules crystallize together
Potential Student Project(s): My current research (supported by the grant from the National Science Foundation) addresses the nature and properties of halogen bonding and anion-pi interactions and their role in thermal and light-induced chemical reactions. Although these counter-intuitive interactions attracted attention of the scientific community during the last decade, they already found a lot of applications in crystal engineering of useful materials, catalysis, design of pharmaceutical molecules, etc. Students in my group will take part in the projects exploring factors determining the strength of these interactions, and their role in subsequent transformations of the interacting molecules, first of all electron transfer reactions. They will use a variety of chemical instruments and will carry out treatment of the data and preparation of results for presentations and publication
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate: I expect that student will be motivated and interested in chemistry, will be able to work meticulously with various chemicals and instruments, and follow procedures and safety requirements.
Mentoring Plan: At the beginning, the student will be trained in lab techniques which are needed for the project, including how to prepare samples (substances and solutions) for the measurements, how to carry out spectral measurements of the samples to identify and characterize complexes and reactions between different species, and how to prepare crystals for X-ray structure determination. Then they will be trained in data analysis to obtain basic characteristic of the complexes (first of all, how strong they are, and how they absorb light), and the rate of reactions, if they occur, in the systems under study.As research progresses, student will learn how to prepare results for presentations at scientific meetings and will make presentations either locally or at symposiums. Student will participate in preparation of publication based on their results.
About 60% of the students who did research in my group became co-authors of publication(s) in high-ranked scientific journals, which substantially enhanced their resumes.
Contact: 765-285-8615,FB 417