2012 STAR Scholars Summer Showcase

On Wednesday, August 29, 2012, all of the members of the STAR Scholars program presented their research posters on the research they had conducted over the summer.  I was able to present my poster and talk with many different people on the research I had conducted.

It was exciting to talk about the work I had conducted and to hear about all of the other research that had taken place over the summer.  Here is an image of my poster:

The day ended with a nice recognition ceremony, where I received a certificate of participation, and my mentor, Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley was honored with the STAR Mentor Of the Year Award.  This STAR program was a great research experience and I am grateful for the tools and skills I learned through this program.  

244th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition

From August 19-23, 2012, the 244th National ACS Meeting was held in Philadelphia, PA.  Due to the close location to Drexel's campus, I was able to attend and present at this conference.

On the 19th, I attend a few sessions on applying to graduate school and other sessions covering different subjects in the field of chemistry.  In the afternoon, I presented an 8 minute presentation for the CINFlash session.  This presentation examined errors and missing information that effects literature in the field of chemistry.  The slides for this presentation can be found on slideshare.

On Monday, the 20th, I attended the Open Notebook Science/Open Chemistry/Electronic Lab Notebook sessions organized by my mentor, Dr. Jean-Claude Bradley.  During the afternoon session, I presented a 25 minute oral presentation.  This presentation covered the advantages of being an undergraduate student in a research group that utilized Open Notebook Science, and how to use solubility tools to choose a recrystallization solvent and to plan a reaction synthesis.  The slides for this presentation can be found on slideshare.  The video of this presentation (screen capture with audio) is here:

All in all, I greatly enjoyed the time I spent at the ACS meeting and attended many interesting sessions that revealed to me that there is an infinite number of ways to use chemistry to better the world.  

STAR Scholar Research

This past summer I participated in the 10-week research program known as the STAR Scholars Program.  I was able to work approximately 40 hours a week dedicated to scientific research.  I will summarize the research I conducted.

The solubility of trans-dibenzalacetone was measured at 25°C using NMR in the solvents benzene, THF, cyclohexane, cyclohexanone, and toluene (EXP308), the solvents methanol, cyclohexanol and acetonitrile (EXP311), the solvents diethyl ether and acetone (EXP313), and the solvents n-hexane, cyclohexane, methanol, 2-propanol and a ethanol/water(50:50)vol mixture (EXP324).  All of the solubility measurements can be found here (may take a moment to load).  The ADmodel003 provides a predicted solubility measurement using no experimental values (uses predicted Abraham Descriptors for the compound).  The ADmeasured model provides predicted solubility measurements using measured Abraham Descriptors for the compound generated from at least five experimentally measured solubilities.  The experimental lists the available experimental measurements.  The model003 is the most useful, because it removes the need for any experimental values, but this model is still being investigated for accuracy.

These solubility values for trans-dibenzalacetone were acquired as a part of the Recrystallization Project.  Through this project, a smartphone app was created for choosing recrystallization solvents, obtaining melting point data, obtaining LogP data and obtaining the MSDS for compounds.  Here is an image of the home page of the app:

This app uses the solubility data obtained at room temperature (25°C) to predict what the recrystallization yield for a compound will be depending on the solvent.  If experimental solubility measurements are not available, a predicted solubility is used and this allows for a solvent to be chosen for the recrystallization of a compound never synthesized before.

In addition to this solubility work, a library of compounds that could be synthesized through the dibenzalacetone procedure, but using different aldehydes was created.  Dibenzalacetone is synthesized using benzaldehyde and acetone.

By changing the aldehyde used (as long as there is a hydrogen on the alpha carbon of the aldehyde), the product can be altered.  A library of compounds that could be synthesized was run against the docking site of Taxol.  Taxol is a drug used in the treatment of cancer.  The top hit is a compound synthesized using the aldehyde phenanthrene-9-carboxaldehyde. 

In UCEXP286, this product was synthesized and results are pending regarding the activity of the compound in the docking site of Taxol.  Below is a picture of the yellow product:

Poster Sessions

This past April, I participated in two research poster sessions on Drexel's campus.  The first poster session on April 3rd, 2012, was the College of Arts and Sciences Research Day.  The abstract is on page 32 of the program. I was able to present my research to many different people from the College of Arts and Sciences, and was officially evaluated by a chemistry professor and a mathematics professor.  The second poster session was the University Wide Research Day held on April 19th, 2012.  The abstract is on page 503 of the Research Day program. Once again, this was a great opportunity to gain experience discussing and presenting my research to people from all departments of the university.

The title of the poster was Using Open Notebook Science to predict the solubility of trans-cinnamic acid using the Abraham Model and an image of the poster is below:

Spring Quarter 2012

The last quarter of my freshman year is quickly coming to an end and I want to provide an update as to the research I have been conducting and provide a quick glimpse into what I will be doing over the summer.

First, an update as the actual experiments that I have been conducting in the lab.  I am examining the Aldol Condensation mechanism that is used to synthesize trans-dibenzalacetone from acetone and benzaldehyde.  This is a common reaction, but little experimental values are available regarding the solubility of trans-dibenzalacetone.  At first, I needed to synthesis the desired product and EXP269, EXP274, EXP278 are the experiments that did not obtain the desired yellow crystals of trans-dibenzalacetone.  EXP279 successfully synthesized the product and a few valuable bits of information were learned.  There must be enough ethanol present in the solution to dissolve the benzaldehyde or the reaction will product orange oil droplets on the surface of the reaction mixture and not react.  The idea is to now take this product and begin testing the solubility of the trans-dibenzalacetone in five solvents in order to generate solubility predictions using the Abraham Model.  These predicted solubilities will then be compared to experimental values that I will measure using SAMS HNMR.  From this solubility information regarding trans-dibenzalacetone specifically, information regarding the solubility of Aldol Condensation reaction will be gained.

This summer I will be working as a part of the STARS program at Drexel University.  This program will allow me to work for approximately 40 hours a week for 10 weeks over the summer.  I will be working in Dr. Bradley's lab and continue to perform the research I have already started on.

In August, the American Chemical Society (ACS) is having their 244th National Meeting in Philadelphia.  The abstract I submitted to present at this conference was accepted and therefore I will be giving an oral presentation at this meeting.  I will be presenting in the Division of Chemical Information and the session is Open Notebook Science/Open Chemistry/Electronic Lab Notebook.  My presentation is entitled:  Leveraging Open Notebook Science for solubility and melting point predictions for optimizing reactions and recrystallizations.  I am excited to attend my first ACS conference (I am a new ACS member) and having the opportunity to present.