Shock waves travelling through a material generate incredible amounts of pressure and cause irreversible changes in said material. Observing mechanical and chemical changes in an energetic material under shock is of particular interest in the study of detonations. Until recently, most experimental measurements of shock waves and shock induced chemistry have been limited to the nanosecond scale. Ultrafast Dynamic Ellipsometry (UDE) is a single-shot, picosecond scale probe of the transit of a shock through a condensed matter sample.

One of the major challenges facing intravenous nanoparticle administration is the formation of protein coronae on the surface of injected nanoparticles, which prevents them from reaching the target tissue. Biocompatible ionic liquids (ILs) have been shown to have tunable interactions with biomolecules including proteins and are prone to rearrangement on charged surfaces.

Cyclopropanone derivatives have long been regarded as unusable and elusive synthetic intermediates, mainly owing to their prominent ring strain and kinetic instability. In this work, we report the enantioselective synthesis of sulfonylcyclopropanols, shown to be modular and versatile synthetic equivalents of the corresponding cyclopropanone derivatives.

The development of new reactions and catalysts for the oxidative cross-coupling of C-H bonds with C-H, N-H and O-H bonds will be discussed. Strategically, these reactions allow for the synthesis of complex molecules from their constituent components, minimizing the need for functional group activation and manipulation. Specifically, rhodium and iridium catalysts for oxidative allylic C-H functionalization of terminal, di- and trisubstituted olefins will be presented.

Aromatic and semi-aromatic polyesters are valuable commodity plastics. Accounting for roughly 10% of the global plastic economy, they boast easy processability and robust thermal and mechanical properties.^1,2 However, aromatic monomers used for the synthesis of these polyesters are derived almost exclusively from petroleum feedstocks.^3,4 While many aliphatic polyesters derived from biosources have seen commercial success in recent years, examples of biobased aromatic monomers are less common.

Despite formaldehyde being a known carcinogen, it is frequently used in cosmetic products as a preservative due to its antimicrobial properties. The FDA lists formaldehyde (FA) and formaldehyde releasers (FR) as common allergens in cosmetic products. According to the European Union, up to 2000 ppm of formaldehyde is permitted in cosmetics but quantifying free formaldehyde from formaldehyde releasers in cosmetics can be challenging.² Formaldehyde releasers work by releasing formaldehyde over time through hydrolysis reactions.

Metabolomics is the study of the collective small molecules within a biological system (cell, tissue or whole organism). The study of these small molecules (metabolites) gives a close measure of the phenotype, giving insight into an organism’s physiological and biochemical state at the time of sample collection. Thus, metabolomics has emerged as a highly attractive field employed to study normal physiology and changes in physiology due to natural diversity, genetic mutations, and disease state(s).

Materials all around us can be classified as either elastic, viscous, or viscoelastic. One can determine where a material falls within the viscosity spectrum based on its rheological properties.

Traditional tandem mass spectrometry, an analytical technique that isolates a precursor ion then fragments it to obtain structural information, is a method extensively used in analytical chemistry. Coupling different separation methods, like LC and GC, can help study complex mixtures that may be difficult with MS/MS alone. However, the isolation step requires a sufficient signal threshold of the precursors, preventing low signal ions that may hold important structural information from being fragmented.