Date & Time: Apr 17 2026 | 4 - 5pm Location: iSTEM Building 2, Room 1218 Two publications from this lab, in 2011 and 2012, used mass spectrometry to show that the rates of reactions in microdroplets are accelerated by many orders of magnitude. These experiments used ordinary organic solvents and demonstrated that acceleration occurs at the solution/air interface. These observations were then extended to a range of classical organic reactions. The Zare group showed reaction acceleration in aqueous microdroplets, for oxidation and other reactions. This presentation covers three topics. (i) Mechanism of acceleration which involves reduction in ΔG# by partial solvation of reagents at the interface (solvation is greater for reagents than the transition state in bimolecular reactions, so increasing rate constants) as well as highly reactive species derived from water radical cation, H2O+.. (ii) Applications of reaction acceleration in high throughput (HT) chemical analysis and (iii) applications of reaction acceleration in materials and organic synthesis, e.g. for nanoparticle formation and heterocyclics synthesis including sustainable organic synthesis. Scale-up (g/h) and small-scale high-throughput reactions (1 Hz) (Figure). Thousands of new compounds are generated per hour allowing rapid screening, collection, and bioactivity testing of nanogram amounts of new drug analogs in a direct-to-biology (D2B) mode, so avoiding time consuming purification. Graham Cooks was born in Benoni, South Africa, and was awarded PhDs by the University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg. and by Cambridge University, UK. He is a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Purdue University, where he has spent the bulk of his career. His interests involve construction of mass spectrometers and unique applications. The latter interest led to construction of tandem sector and miniature ion trap mass spectrometers and their application to problems of trace chemical agent detection. He has graduated 158 Ph.Ds. His major contributions to tandem mass spectrometry, ambient ionization and ion/surface interactions have been followed by his recent discovery of accelerated reactions in microdroplets which forms the basis for this seminar. Type of Event: Departmental Colloquium Analytical Seminar Special Seminar Research Areas: Analytical Chemistry Prof. Graham Cooks Department: Henry B. Hass Professor of Analytical Chemistry Purdue University Learn more about Prof. Cooks and his work: https://aston.chem.purdue.edu/r-graham-cooks.html
