ROCK HILL, SOUTH CAROLINA – The National Science Foundation recently awarded Winthrop University a $192,216 grant to support graduate and undergraduate research in photochemistry.
Chemistry Professor Jay Hanna will begin work on the three-year grant in August in collaboration with Michael Walter, a chemistry professor at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
The two plan to design new, low-cost and high efficiency organic photocatalyst scaffolds that harness light energy for performing chemical transformations important to drug discovery and development. The overall goal, Hanna said, is to advance more sustainable, carbon-based photocatalyst scaffolds that will reduce the cost, toxicity, and overall environmental impact as compared to the traditional precious metal-based systems now used.
The study includes the synthesis and study of new catalyst scaffolds, with the goal of advancing fundamental knowledge about how modifications affect reactivity.
The new catalysts will then be studied in a variety of pharmaceutically important chemical transformations which currently rely on expensive-metal photocatalysts, Hanna said. “The materials produced by this project can benefit society by contributing to the development of a new series of photocatalyst materials that will improve synthetic efficiency and lower the environmental impact of organic syntheses,” he added.
The grant represents a new regional collaboration between Winthrop and UNC Charlotte. The research components will be connected through the classroom teaching of the two faculty members, who will introduce the skills of photochemical sciences to a diverse group of graduate and undergraduate students.
Hanna and Walter plan to share their findings with local science museums, educators, and schools to develop and provide chemistry outreach programs to the Charlotte region.
For more information, contact Hanna at hannaj@winthrop.edu.
