Planning: Enabling a Future in Chemistry at a Historically Black University

规划：在历史悠久的黑人大学实现化学的未来

• 批准号: 2332050
• 负责人: Yalan Ning
• 金额: $ 9.92万
• 依托单位: Huston-Tillotson University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2023-10-01 至 2024-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2332050&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Planning; Enabling; Future; Chemistry; Historically

Nontechnical: Huston-Tillotson University (HT) is a small historically black university (HBCU) in Austin, Texas with 148 years history. Compared to other Texas-based universities, HT has considerable room for growth in their research capacity. During the past two years supported by Research Initiation Award (RIA), preliminary research data has been obtained by PI and her underrepresented undergraduate researchers. In the future, professional collaboration must be developed in order to achieve scientific publication, considering the lack of advanced equipment or facilities at a small HBCU like HT. This step is also of importance to collect research data for PI’s future application for the Excellence in Research (EIR) award. Thus, various activities have been proposed such as training undergraduate researchers, conducting a small workshop with collaborators, visiting collaborators’ labs, participating in professional workshops, and conferences. These efforts will contribute significantly to our final goal of enhancing the future for underrepresented students at HBCUs. Additionally, this EIR-planning award will help our chemistry program to grow. With the hiring and retention of experienced adjunct faculty, both the chemistry curriculum quality and diversity will be improved. A professional chemistry workshop will be set up and the resulting collaboration will grow in visibility and stature as the event develops. Professional articles in chemistry will be published with HT as the first organization. Most importantly, new students will be attracted to the chemistry department and the detailed training that we provide will lead them to either a professional job in Industry or a postsecondary degree after their graduation from HT.Technical: MOFs (metal organic frameworks) as porous crystalline materials have proven especially useful as nano platforms for catalytic reactions. Metalloporphyrin-based (cyclic structures consisting of four pyrrole rings joined together by four methine groups) catalysts can be incorporated in MOFs for polymerization of petrochemical monomers as well as non-petrochemical monomers. The chemical environment within a MOF not only initiates the polymerization, but also enables the tuning the microstructure of the resulting polymer. After the modification on the inorganic nodes and organic ligands, the MOFs may be used as a stereo and chemical selective catalytic reactor, converting a specific monomer out of a mixture of monomers, and into highly tactic polymer. Our Research objective is to develop an inexpensive recyclable metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) catalysts with collaboration with other labs. This will also support PI’s coming EIR application in polymerization by porphyrin MOFs catalysts, in which effort will focus on the adjustment of groups on Porphyrin as well as kinetic and mechanism studies. Utilizing collaboration with other labs in these areas, PI would be able to characterize her heterogenous MOFs catalysts. Planning and collaboration activities will not only help to obtain access to modern equipment in chemistry, it will also foment new plans in related research areas. Lastly, various workshops, conferences, and trainings will help both faculty and students to improve our abilities to further advance in academia.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

Huston-Tillotson University（HT）是一所位于德克萨斯州奥斯汀的小型黑人大学（HBCU），拥有148年的历史。与其他德克萨斯州的大学相比，HT在其研究能力方面有相当大的增长空间。在过去的两年里，在研究启动奖（RIA）的支持下，PI和她的代表性不足的本科研究人员已经获得了初步的研究数据。考虑到HT这样的小型HBCU缺乏先进的设备或设施，未来必须发展专业合作，以实现科学出版。这一步对于PI未来申请卓越研究（EIR）奖收集研究数据也很重要。因此，提出了各种活动，如培训本科研究人员，与合作者进行小型研讨会，参观合作者的实验室，参加专业研讨会和会议。这些努力将大大有助于我们的最终目标，提高在HBCU代表性不足的学生的未来。此外，这个EIR规划奖将帮助我们的化学计划成长。随着有经验的兼职教师的聘用和保留，化学课程的质量和多样性将得到改善。一个专业的化学研讨会将成立，由此产生的合作将随着活动的发展而增加知名度和地位。以HT为第一个组织，发表化学专业文章。最重要的是，新学生将被吸引到化学系，我们提供的详细培训将引导他们在工业专业工作或从HT毕业后获得大专学位。技术：MOFs（金属有机框架）作为多孔晶体材料已被证明特别有用，作为催化反应的纳米平台。基于金属卟啉（由通过四个次甲基连接在一起的四个吡咯环组成的环状结构）的催化剂可以被引入到用于石化单体以及非石化单体的聚合的MOF中。MOF内的化学环境不仅引发聚合，而且还能够调节所得聚合物的微观结构。在对无机节点和有机配体进行改性之后，M0 F可以用作立体和化学选择性催化反应器，将特定单体从单体混合物中转化出来，并转化为高度规整的聚合物。我们的研究目标是与其他实验室合作开发廉价的可回收金属有机框架（MOFs）催化剂。这也将支持PI即将在卟啉MOFs催化剂聚合中的EIR应用，其中努力将集中在卟啉基团的调整以及动力学和机理研究上。利用与这些领域的其他实验室的合作，PI将能够表征她的多相MOFs催化剂。规划和合作活动不仅有助于获得现代化的化学设备，还将促进相关研究领域的新计划。最后，各种研讨会，会议和培训将帮助教师和学生提高我们在学术界进一步发展的能力。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。