Summer Scholar Report The NESACS Multi- · 2018-01-22 · At its November meeting, NESACS...

httpwwwnesacsorg

February 2018 Vol XCVI No6

NORTHEASTERN SECTION bull AMERICAN CHEMIC

ALSO

CIET

Y

FOUNDED 1898

NESACS

Monthly MeetingTeri Quinn Gray ACS District III Director to speak atthe Broad Institute

The NESACS Multi-GenerationalMentoring InitiativeBy Carol Mulrooney and Catherine Rawlins

Summer ScholarReportBy Rachael Howland and Patrick J CappillinoUniversity of Massachusetts-Dartmouth

Summer ScholarReportBy William Coreas and Deno Del Sesto Stonehill College

2 The Nucleus February 2018

The idea for the NESACS Multi-Gener-ational Mentoring Initiative was con-ceived as a collaboration of the YoungerChemists Committee (YCC) WomenChemists Committee (WCC) and Sen-ior Chemists Committee (SCC) led byCatherine Rawlins Carol Mulrooneyand Morton Hoffman respectively

We recognized that there wereoverlapping goals of these three com-mittees and successfully received an In-novative Projects Grant from the ACSThere are many stages of your career inwhich mentoring is needed and wesought to combine our efforts to reach abroader audience as a team Thus farthree events have been run in 2017under this initiativeKnow Your Worth Workshop withAshley PareDuring the Fall 2017 NSYCC CareerSymposium at Boston University weorganized a workshop on building salarynegotiation skills This stemmed from

the Wage Gap Panel hosted by the WCCin April 2017 Because of the new EqualPay laws in Massachusetts there is aneed for more training on salary negoti-ation as a way to close the gender wagegap

This workshop was run by AshleyPare an expert on teaching negotiationskills with 10+ years in human resourceswhose company Own Your Worth LLCleads workshops in the Greater BostonArea Ashley presented information onthe wage gap among chemists and pre-sented resources for chemists to find outwhat the expected salary range is forchemists of different backgrounds in in-dustry The undergraduate and graduatestudents attending the symposiumlearned about the need to negotiate theirsalary when starting their industry ca-reers In interactive sessions the audi-ence practiced negotiating by role-playing employer and prospective em-ployee salary conversations In the feed-

back from the post-symposium surveysmany cited this workshop as their fa-vorite part of the dayrsquos events and feltthat the training was valuableGraduate Programs in ChemistryDeciding Getting in and SucceedingThis panel discussion was geared to-wards undergraduate chemistry studentsconsidering graduate school and was co-hosted by the Department of Chemistryat Bridgewater State University Thefour panelists ranged in experience froma BSU alumna in her first year in a grad-uate program to a University Professorin charge of graduate admissions Thepanelists participating were PhoebeKurriss graduate student at Brown Uni-versity Catherine Rawlins graduate stu-dent at Northeastern and a co-host of thepanel Dr Mindy Levine Associate Pro-fessor at University of Rhode Islandand Dr Carla Mattos Professor at North-eastern University Carol Mulrooneychair of the NESACS Women ChemistsCommittee moderated the discussion

Utilizing resources from the ACSthe discussion started with the decisionto go to graduate school and moved towhat the undergraduates would need todo to prepare themselves for the experi-ence The second part of the discussionrevolved around each year of graduateschool and what the milestones are thatthe students can expect to achieve dur-ing their time The presentation includednumerous references to the ACS websiteand the extensive resources available toundergraduate and graduate studentsPizza and refreshments were served be-fore the panel and students were giventhe opportunity to network with the pan-elists after the event We plan to directmore events such as this to undergradu-ate-only institutions to reach a broaderaudiencePerspectives on a Life in ChemistryMentoringThis symposium was the third IPG

The NESACS Multi-GenerationalMentoring InitiativeBy Carol Mulrooney NESACS Women Chemists Committee Chair and Catherine Rawlins NESACS YCC PastChair

continued on page 13

The Nucleus February 2018 3

The Nucleus is published monthly except June and August by the Northeastern Section of the AmericanChemical Society Inc Forms close for advertising on the 1st of the month of the preceding issue Textmust be received by the editor six weeks before the date of issueEditor Michael P Filosa PhD 18 Tamarack Road Medfield MA 02052 Email

mpf1952gmailcom Tel 508-843-9070Associate Editors Myron S Simon 60 Seminary Ave apt 272 Auburndale MA 02466

Morton Z Hoffman 23 Williams Rd Norton MA 02766Board of Publications James Phillips (Chair) Mary Mahaney Ajay Purohit Ken Drew Katherine

LeeBusiness Manager VacantAdvertising Manager Vacant contact Michael Filosa at mpf1952gmailcomCalendar Coordinator Xavier Herault Email xheraultoutlookcomPhotographers Morton Hoffman and James PhillipsProofreaders Donald O Rickter Morton Z HoffmanWebmaster Roy Hagen Email webmasternesacsorgCopyright 2018 Northeastern Section of the American Chemical Society Inc

The Northeastern Section of the American-Chemical Society IncOffice Anna Singer 12 Corcoran RoadBurlington MA 01803(Voice or FAX) (781)272-1966e-mail secretarynesacsorgNESACS HomepagehttpwwwNESACSorgOfficers 2018ChairMindy Levine35 Cottage StSharon MA 02067-2130(516)697-9688mindylevinegmailcomChair-ElectAndrew ScholteSanofiWaltham MA617-459-5145ascholtegmailcomImmediate Past ChairLeland L Johnson JrWuXi AppTecBrookline MA(617)304-6474lelandljohnsongmailcomSecretaryMichael SingerMilliporeSigma3 Strathmore Rd Natick MA 01760(774)290-1391 MichaelsingersialcomTreasurerAshis Saha67 Bow StArlington MA 02474-2744(978)212-5462sahaashish1909gmailcomAuditorPatrick GordonArchivistKen MattesTrusteesPeter C Meltzer Dorothy Phillips Ruth TannerDirectors-at-LargeDavid Harris June Lum Michael P Filosa John Neumeyer James U Piper Ralph ScannellCouncilorsAlternate CouncilorsTerm Ends 12312018Katherine Lee Ajay PurohitCatherine E Costello June LumRuth Tanner Malika Jeffries-ELKenneth Mattes VACANTJackie OrsquoNeil Term Ends 12312019Thomas R Gilbert Jerry P JasinskiMary Jane Shultz Raj (SB) RajurMichael Singer Matthew M JacobsenLisa Marcaurelle Ashis SahaLeland L Johnson Jr Term Ends 12312020Michael P Filosa Robert LichterCarol Mulrooney Morton Z HoffmanPatricia A Mabrouk Sonja Strah-PleynetAnna W Sromek Andrew ScholteSofia A Santos Patrick M Gordon

All Chairs of standingCommittees the editor of THE NUCLEUS and the Trustees of SectionFunds are members of theBoard of Directors AnyCoun cilor of the American Chemical Societyresiding within the section area is an ex officiomember of the Board of Directors

ContentsThe NESACS Multi-Generational Mentoring Initiative __________2By Carol Mulrooney and Catherine Rawlins

Announcements ___________________________________2511Northeast Student Chemistry Research Conference The Norris-Richards Under-graduate Summer Research Scholarships STEM Journey V Robotics in the 21stCentury

Going for the Gold______________________________________4By Steve Lantos

Monthly Meeting _______________________________________5Teri Quinn Gray ACS District III Director to speak at the Broad Institute

Summer Scholar Report _________________________________6Scalable Versatile Synthesis of Bio-Inspired Vanadium Compounds for High Sta-bility High Solubility Flow Battery Active MaterialsRachael Howland and Patrick J Cappillino University of Massachusetts Dartmouth MA

Summer Scholar Report _________________________________8Gas-Surface Reaction Dynamics Studied using Molecular BeamsBy William Coreas Deno Del Sesto Stonehill College North Easton MA

STEM Journey IV NASArsquos Mission to Mars__________________11By Jack Driscoll and Jennifer Maclachlan NESACS Public Relations

Business Directory ____________________________________15Calendar ____________________________________________16Cover Photo taken at the January Meeting held at Nova Biochem (L-R) PeterDorhout (ACS President) Dorothy Phillips (ACS Director-at-Large) Tom Gilbert(NESACS Councilor) Photo by Morton Z Hoffman

Editorial Deadlines April 2018 Issue February 22 2018 May 2018 Issue March 22 2018

At its November meeting NESACS rec-ognized the 2017 International Chem-istry Olympiad (IChO) Team USA andone of its students Joshua Park of Lex-ington High School together with histhree teammates Harrison Wang (Hins-dale Central High School IL) StevenLiu (Monta Vista High School CA) andBrendan Yap (Carmel High School IN)who are freshman at MIT Given theirlocation NESACS honored lsquoTeamAlpha Kapparsquo (so named because it isthe 34th team sent to the IChO startingwith the first yearrsquos lsquoAlpharsquo team thenat the end of the 24 Greek letters begin-ning with a second letter again startingwith alpha) at the meeting for its out-standing four-gold medal performanceat the 49th annual IChO in Thailand Infact NESACS has had a longstandingrelationship with the United States Na-tional Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO)and the IChO that dates to the origins ofour countryrsquos involvement with theworld chemistry competition

The IChO began in 1968 as aninter-country competition among severalEuropean nations including BulgariaCzechoslovakia Hungary Poland Ro-mania and Austria Today it includes 75countries with over 290 students makingup the four-person teams from each na-tion Each nation conducts competitionsto select the top students as representa-tives to the world event

How does one get to the worldcompetition Itrsquos a long process that ob-viously begins in the classroom with thestudy of chemical concepts and lots ofpractice with laboratory work Goodteaching certainly helps In the US thefirst step is to take an exam There aremore than 140 ACS local sectionsthroughout the country that offer eithertheir own exam or one provided by theACS Office of K-12 Education thatconsists of a 60-question multiplechoice exam covering fundamentalchemical concepts at a level of a morechallenging Chemistry SATII Here inNESACS given the level of ability ofmany of our top students we have cho-

sen instead to write our own 85-90-question multiple-choice exam calledthe Avery Ashdown Exam in honor ofthe longtime MIT chemistry professorto differentiate the top scorers We per-mit a maximum of five students per highschool to compete

Typically over 16000 students na-tionwide take some form of the local sec-tion exam each year in early April Fromthis entry-level group the ACS has al-lotted a fixed number of students to qual-ify for the next round of competition theUSNCO Thanks to Ron Ragsdale of theUniversity of Utah who has been in-volved with the USNCO from its begin-ning in the mid-1980s the ACS uses afederated system whereby the number of


NESACS Sponsors 2017Platinum $5000+Boston Foundation Esselen AwardSK Life ScienceAmgen IncJohnson MattheyVertex PharmaceuticalsDavos PharmaBiogenPCI SynthesisNavin Fluorine International Ltd

Gold $3000 up to $5000Merck Research CorpSignal PharmaceuticalsJ-Star ResearchIPG Women ChemistsAbbvie

Silver $1500 up to $3000Mettler ToledoSanofi US ServicesWarp Drive BioPfizerLAVIANAStrem Chemicals

Bronze $500 up to $1500Chemical Computing GroupXtuit PharmaceuticalsCydan Development IncAchillion PharmaceuticalsAlkermesFLAMMASafety Partners IncPiramal Pharma SolutionsrsquoSelvita IncOrganixCreaGen Life ScienceEntasis TherapeuticsMorphic TherapeuticInterchim IncXtal BiostructuresQuartet MedicineAnton Parr USABiotageBioduroNovalix PharmaThermo FisherCresset GroupCustom NMR Services


Going for the GoldBy Steve Lantos (Chair High School Education Committee) BrooklineHigh School

R

This graduate level course concentrates on the fundamentals that are useful in drug discovery spanning initial target assay evaluation through clinical development Case histories of recent successful drug development programs will also be presented The five-day program covers

Principles of Med Chem DMPK Cheminformatics Toxicophores

Lead ID amp Optimization GPCRs Epigenetics Kinase Inhibitors Fragment-based Drug Design Ion Channels Structure-based Drug Design Enzyme Inhibitors Drug-like Properties Bioisosteres Protein-Protein Interactions Preclinical Toxicology

Molecular Modeling Clinical Development Antibody-Drug Conjugates

Bill Greenlee Vince Gullo amp Ron Doll ndash Co-organizers

ResMed Residential School on Medicinal Chemistry and Biology in Drug Discovery

June 10-15 2018Drew University Madison NJ

Attendees will be staying at the Madison Hotel

wwwdreweduresmed e-mail resmeddrewedu

phone 973408-3787 fax 973408-3504

(l-r) Brendan Yap Steve Liu Joshua Park Har-rison Wang (Photo by Cecilia HernandezCampEN Vol 95 Issue 30 July 24 2017 p 4)


BiographyTeri Quinn Gray is Six Sigma Consultantand New Product CommercializationManager with DuPont Crop Protectionin Newark DE Shersquos a native of Jack-son Mississippi and honors graduate ofJackson State University with a BS de-gree in chemistry She holds a PhD in

analytical chemistry from the Universityof Maryland College Park and workedas NRC Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST in1995-1997 She is President of the DEState Board of Education appointed byGovernor Jack Markell in June 2009Teri currently serves on the ACSWomen Chemists Committee and aschair of the ACS Diversity amp InclusionAdvisory Board u

AnnouncementThe Norris-RichardsUndergraduate SummerResearch ScholarshipsMarch 29 2018 DeadlineThe Northeastern Section of the Ameri-can Chemical Society established theJames Flack Norris and TheodoreWilliam Richards Undergraduate Sum-mer Scholarships to honor the memoriesof Professors Norris and Richards bypromoting research interactions betweenundergraduate students and faculty

Research awards of $3500 will be given for the summer of 2018 The stu-dent stipend is $3000 for a minimumcommitment of ten weeks of full-timeresearch work The remaining $500 ofthe award can be spent on suppliestravel and other items relevant to thestudent project

Institutions whose studentfacultyteam receives a NorrisRichards Under-graduate Summer Research Scholarshipare expected to contribute toward thesupport of the faculty members and towaive any student fees for summer re-search Academic credit may be grantedto the students at the discretion of the in-stitutions

Award winners are required to sub-mit a report (~5-7 double-spaced pagesincluding figures tables and bibliogra-phy) of their summer projects to the Ed-itor of The Nucleus by November 12018 for publication in The NucleusThey are also required to participate inthe Northeast Student Chemistry Re-search Conference (NSCRC) in April2019 EligibilityApplications will be accepted from stu-dentfaculty teams at colleges and uni-versities within the Northeastern SectionThe undergraduate student must be achemistry biochemistry chemical engi-neering or molecular biology major ingood standing and have completed atleast two full years of college-levelchemistry by Summer 2018 Criteria for Selectionbull scientific merit - important factors in-

clude the originality of the project the

Monthly MeetingThe 976th Meeting of the Northeastern Section of the AmericanChemical SocietyThursday February 8 2018Broad Institute415 Main Street Cambridge MA 02142

430 pm NESACS Board Meeting

530 pm Social Hour (Yellowstone Room 415 Main St)

630 pm Dinner

730 pm Andrew Scholte NESACS Chair-Elect PresidingKeynote Presentation

(Auditorium 415 Main St) Dr Teri Quinn Gray (httpsgooglimages9VBUHv) DowDuPont Transportation amp Advanced PolymersDistrict III Director - American Chemical Society

YOU MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE TO ATTEND THE MEETINGTHERE IS NO REGISTRATION FEE TO ATTEND THE MEETING

DINNER RESERVATIONS ARE REQUIRED THE PUBLIC IS INVITED

bull For those who would like to join us for dinner register by noon ThursdayFebruary 1 at the NESACS Eventbrite page httpsfebruary-2018-nesacs-grayeventbritecom Cost Members $30 Non-members $35 Retirees $20Students $10 Dinner reservations not cancelled at least 24 hours in advancewill not be refunded

bull If you wish to join us for this meeting and not eat dinner please register bynoon Thursday February 1 using httpsfebruary-2018-nesacs-grayeventbritecom

If you have any questions or require additional information contact the Ad-ministrative Coordinator Anna Singer via email at secretarynesacsorgParking Parking is available in the Yellow Garage behind the Broad Instituteaccess by either Ames St or Galileo Galilei Way Metered street parking is avail-able on Main St and Ames StThe Broad is 2 blocks from the MITKendall T Stop on the Red LineMarch Meeting The March Meeting will be held at the Museum of FineArts (MFA) on TUESDAY March 13 2018 u

Dr Teri Quinn Gray



AbstractNon-aqueous redox flow batteries (NRFBs) offer a viable so-lution to grid-scale energy storage However their implemen-tation has been hindered by poor stability and low solubilityof the active materials within the electrolyte solutions To mit-igate this issue a bio-inspired approach was taken to find avanadium complex that had been optimized for stabilitythrough natural selection1 Amavadin produced by theAmanita muscaria mushroom is a metal complex consistingof a vanadium ion bound by two tetradentate hydroxyimin-odipropionic acid ligands that has the strongest binding for avanadium compound ever reported2 An analogous syntheticversion of Amavadin vanadium(iv)bis-hydroxyiminodiac-etate (VBH2-) retains this unique binding structure making itan auspicious candidate for an NRFB active material Previ-ous experiments with the calcium salt of this analogue cal-cium(ii)vanadium(iv)bis-hydroxyiminodiacetate (Ca2+VBH)showed promising stability to deep cycling However it ex-hibited low solubility in all solvents tested other than dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and water neither of which are practicalNRFB solvents This investigation addressed the need forVBH2- analogues that are soluble in battery-relevant solventsby changing the counter cation from calcium to alkylammo-niums High concentration NRFB electrolytes have been pre-pared in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and g-butyrolactone (GBL)without compromising the inherent stability as measured withUV-vis spectroscopy These new compounds were character-ized with X-ray crystallography and FTIR

In addition modifications to the synthesis of these com-pounds were made Leveraging the remarkable stability ofVBH2- a direct synthetic scheme was employed that obviatesthe need for costly ion-exchange resins that were used in thepreviously reported procedures This scalable approach al-lowed for the Ca2+VBH to become a reagent in the formationof new complexes by exploiting the low Ksp of calcium fluo-ride facilitating cation metathesis between Ca2+ from theCa2+VBH and alkylammonium fluoride salts These changessupport the commercial feasibility of these electrolytes by re-moving limitations on scalability and providing a versatilesynthesis pathway for VBH2- active materials with arbitrarycationsIntroductionThe adoption of renewable energy to the electrical grid systemis hindered by the intermittent nature of the sources such aswind and solar power3 Developing grid-scale energy storageto mitigate the supply and demand discrepancy has been rec-ognized as an integral component in transitioning energy de-pendence from fossil fuels to sustainable sources4 Withpredictions from the US Energy Information Administration

(EIA) indicating an increase in renewable energy usage5 theneed to develop and improve existing strategies is increasing

Redox flow batteries (RFBs) have been a promising tech-nology in energy storage for decades due to their design ver-satility efficiency and unique scalability6-8 A generic modelof the RFB includes redox-active electrolytes stored independ-ently and then pumped into a cell containing two half cellspositive and negative that are separated by an ion selectivemembrane and connected to a power and a load source re-spectively3 This design accounts for their scalability giventhat power can be scaled by increasing the electrochemicalapparatus and capacity is a function of the volume and con-centration of the electrolyte solution4

State-of-the-art RFBs consist of vanadium ions in aque-ous acidic solutions for both the anode and cathode activematerials9 However non-aqueous systems (NRFBs) havebegun to garner attention since they offer several key advan-tages with respect to the composition of their electrolyte so-lutions These include wide electrochemical windows lowvapor pressures high dielectric constants potentially greaterthermal stability and improvements in power and energy den-sity10-11 Notwithstanding these clear advantages developmentof NRFBs has been severely inhibited by the instability of theactive materials within the electrolyte solutions during cy-cling especially at high current densities10 This degradationcan result in as much as 80 capacity loss after only modestcycling12-15 crippling the batteriesrsquo lifespan In addition it isdifficult to predict the behavior of active materials in advancecreating a general reliance on commonly known commer-cially available compounds and discouraging more novel ap-proaches

Prior research had posited that a bio-inspired approachthat recognized nature had been optimizing for the stability ofmetal complexes through eons of evolution led to the explo-ration of the biomolecule Amavadin Amavadin binds a vana-dium (iv) ion with two tetradentate ligands and has thestrongest binding constant (log K = 234 plusmn 5) for that ion everrecorded2 A synthetic version of the molecule vanadium (iv)hydroxyiminodiacetate (VBH2-) was used as a scaffold foractive materials in NRFB electrolytes1 In initial experimentsconducted with a known Amavadin analogue calcium(ii)vanadium(iv)bis-hydroxyiminodiacetate (Ca2+VBH) cyclicvoltammetric (CV) analysis and exhaustive deep redox cy-cling between vanadium(ivv) in both static cell and flow bat-tery showed excellent chemical and stability and negligiblecapacity-fade1 In addition Ca2+VBH was stable in both thereduced and oxidized states over time as verified by UV-visspectroscopy1

Summer Scholar ReportScalable Versatile Synthesis of Bio-Inspired Vanadium Compounds for High Stability HighSolubility Flow Battery Active MaterialsRachael Howland and Patrick J CappillinoDepartment of Chemistry and Biochemistry University of Massachusetts 02747

continued on page 7

While the promising stability of Ca2+VBH has beendemonstrated it was only soluble in water and DMSO neitherof which are ideal solvents for NRFBs This redirected thefocus of the investigation from stability to solubility and theidea that different counter cations could have an impact on ac-tive material concentrations and in more relevant solvents Initially (bis)tetramethyl-ammonium vanadium(iv)(bis)hy-droxy-iminodiacetate ([N1111]2VBH) was synthesized anddissolved in propylene carbonate (5 mM) This was an im-provement over Ca2+ allowing electrochemical evaluationand further suggested that changing the counter cation was auseful approach to increasing solubility1

Two challenges in terms of synthesis became apparent atthis stage First the published synthesis for Ca2+VBH was notscalable due to the use of an ion exchange column2 To pro-vide perspective a recent trial at Case Western Reserve Uni-versity used 45 gallons of electrolyte solution to produce a 1KW scale prototype flow battery16 To match this prototypescale a 608 litre (1600 US gallon) ion-exchange columnwould be necessary Second a versatile synthesis allowingeither purification of VBH2- with cations or direct preparationof electrolytes was necessary The commercial viability ofVBH2- as an NRFB active material scaffold would be im-proved if a scalable method could be found that also elimi-nated the need for an ion exchange columnMethodsGeneralBromoacetic acid 98 (Alfa Aesar) hydroxylamine hy-drochloride 99 (Alfa Aesar) zinc acetate dihydrate (AcrosOrganics) calcium chloride (Fischer Technical) tetraethylam-monium hydroxide 35 wt in water (Sigma Aldrich)tetraethylammonium fluoride ge 980 (VWR) tetrabutylam-monium fluoride 70-75 water (TCI) vanadium (iv)bis(acetylacetonato) oxide 98 (STREM) γ-butyrolactone(Sigma Aldrich) and tetramethylammonium hydroxide 25in water (Acros Organics) were purchased and used withoutpurification Zinc hydroxyiminodiacetate (ZnHIDA) was pre-pared according to literature procedures2Physical MethodsFTIR Analysis was conducted using a Nicolet iS5 spectrom-eter with iD7 ATR attachment (Thermo Scientific) UV-visspectroscopy was performed with an Evolution 220 UV Vis-ible spectrophotometer (Thermo Scientific) and XRD was col-lected with a Bruker D8 Venture X

UV-vis spectroscopy was carried out for both the initialsynthesis concentrations of the analogues in their respectivesolvents and at a 110 volumetric dilution The extinction co-efficient 120020825=248 M-1cm-1 had previously been determinedfor Ca2+VBH and was used in this experiment1 Before deter-mination of concentration any precipitate was removed usingeither centrifuging or vacuum filtration Preparation of (bis)tetraethylammonium vanadium(iv)(bis)hydroxyiminodiacetate [N2222]2VBHndash Method A In

3 mL of solvent 0795 g (0003 mol) Ca2+VBH (265 gmol)111 g (0006 mol) tetraethylammonium fluoride (185 gmol)were combined and stirred overnight Solvents used were ei-ther water DMSO GBL or PC A bright blue solution formedwith off-white solid The precipitate was removed throughcentrifuging and then filtrationCrystallization-Crystals suitable for X-ray diffraction were obtained fromsamples of the compound that had been synthesized withMethod B In 40 mL of water 34 g (0008 mol) [N2222]middotOH(35 wt H2O 14726 gmol) 106 g (0004 mol) VO[acac]2(265 gmol) 12 g (0008 mol) hydroxyiminodiacetic acid(H3HIDA) (149 gmol) were combined and stirred for 1 hourA bright blue solution formed and was then roto-evapourateduntil a solid formed This was filtered dissolved in ethanoland slow diffused with diethylether FTIR 3391(NH)2991(CH) 1603(CO)1178(CC) 1005(CC)Preparation of (bis)tetrabutylammonium vanadium(iv)(bis)hydroxyiminodiacetate [N4444]2VBH ndash This com-pound was prepared by Method A above In 50 mL of solvent13 g (0005 mol) Ca2+VBH (265 gmol) 28 g (0010 mol)tetrabutylammonium fluoride (2805 gmol) were combinedand stirred overnight The solvents used were either waterDMSO GBL or THF A bright blue solution formed with anoff-white solid The precipitate was removed through cen-trifuging and then filtration Crystallization-Crystals suitable for XRD were obtained from slow diffusionof diethylether into a high concentration THF solution pre-pared by method A FTIR 3419(NH) 2957(CH) 1615(CO)1127(CC)Results and DiscussionModification of the Ca2+VBH synthesisThe synthesis method for creating the VBH2- analogues wasmodified in two ways elimination of the ion exchange col-umn and a cation metathesis approach utilizing the fluoridesalt of the desired cation One of the precursors to theCa2+VBH preparation from the literature is a zinc salt of thehydroxyiminodiacetate (HIDA)1 In that procedure an ion ex-change column was used to remove the Zn2+ cation from thezinc salt of the hydroxyiminodiacetate ligands HIDA leavinga protonated version hydroxyiminodiacetic acid (H3HIDA)that could then be reacted with calcium chloride (CaCl2) andvanadium (iv) bis(acetylacetonato) oxide (VO(Acac2)) to pro-duce Ca2+VBH (Scheme 1) The logarithm of the stability con-stant for Zn-Hida is 505(10) compared to that of 230(10) forVBH2- suggesting a strong preference of HIDA for the vana-dium(iv) ion1 Initially attempts were made to dissolve theZnHIDA with phosphoric acid in the presence of vanadylacetylacetonate VO[acac]2(s) since zinc phosphate has a Ksp of5 x 10-36 17 and should have precipitated leaving VBH2- in so-lution without further purification on the column Howeverboth the zinc phosphate and the Ca2+VBH precipitated andthis pathway was abandoned after various efforts to isolate theproduct The next attempt was to use 12 M hydrochloric acid



HowlandCappillino ScholarContinued from page 6


During the summer of 2017 the process of steam reformationwas studied specifically the rate-determining C-H bondcleavage step in steam reformation The overall reactionwhich takes place in steam reformation is important as it isthe main industrially pathway for production of H2 gas a cleanand powerful energy source that has the potential to replaceother pollutant fuels currently used in the world and is usedin the production of synthetic fertilizer The process which theUtz research group1 focuses on is shown in Equation 1 whichis performed over a nickel catalyst

The reason this reaction is known as a heterogeneous catalysisis as the catalyst is in a different physical state than thereagents and products in the reaction as the methane andwater are in gaseous states while the nickel is in solid stateThis reaction is very important as the hydrogen gas that isformed from the reaction seen in Equation 1 can the be usedthen used in the Haber-Bosch reaction which is seen in Equa-tion 2

The hydrogen gas is reacted with nitrogen to produce ammo-nia this ammonia can be used to produce synthetic fertilizersThis process is vital as 48 of the worldrsquos population wassupported and fed using synthetic fertilizers made using am-monia2 The worldrsquos population is also growing at a fast paceso more fertilizer must be produced meaning more hydrogengas needs to be produced The problem that arises is that thecurrent industrial process used currently for steam reformationis not as efficient as it could be and it is also costly By study-ing the rate determining C-H bond cleavage step shown inEquation 3

where the CH3 and the H are adsorbed to the surface the over-all reaction can be made more efficient Very few methanemolecules that interact with the nickel catalyst react as thereaction transition state has strict geometric and energetic re-quirements To maximize the efficiency of adsorption of themethane on the nickel catalyst industrially the methane gasis heated to high temperatures to maximize energy and is atvery high pressures to increase collisions with the catalyst

The machine built in the Utz lab which is used to studythe reaction of methane on the nickel catalyst has four differ-

entially pumped vacuum chambers there is the source wherethe methane gas is thermalized and the molecular beam is pro-duced the 1st differential chamber which is where themethane molecules can be excited via an IR laser the 2nd dif-ferential chamber which is where beam analysis takes placeand the main chamber which contains the nickel single crystalsample To determine the exact nature of the interaction ofmethane with nickel and to understand the restrictions on thetransition state methane can be produced with a specific ki-netic and vibrational energy These variables can give insightinto the energetic and geometric restrictions on the minimumpathway to reactivity

A mixture of methane gas as well as lighter gases suchas hydrogen are pumped into the molecular beam which isheld at 40 psi inside of the source chamber held at a pressureof the magnitude 10-4 torr The hydrogen gas is added into themixture to bring down the average mass of the mixture al-lowing for the kinetic energy of the methane to increase byincreasing the velocity of the mixture of gases Once the gaseswere thermalized the molecular beam travels to the 1st cham-ber where it is excited by the IR laser then travels to the 2nd

chamber which then selects only the molecules that are trav-eling in a straight path to the nickel catalyst to pass the cham-ber

The IR laser is important as it excites the molecules vibra-tionally meaning the molecules are vibrating in a specific ori-entation and carry a certain kinetic energy Figure 1 aboveshows the sticking probability or the likeliness of methane toreact with the nickel surface of methane that was excited by

Summer Scholar ReportGas-Surface Reaction Dynamics Studied Using Molecular BeamsBy William Coreas Deno Del Sesto Stonehill College North Easton MA

Equation 1 Steam-reforming process

Equation 2 Haber-Bosch process

Equation 3 Rate-determining step of heterogenous catalysis

Figure 1 Sticking probability curves of methane on nickelwith and without laser 3

continued on page 9

a laser compared to methane that was not The curve on theright shows the reactivity of methane without laser excitationwhile the curve on the left shows methane in an excited stateThe difference in energy in both curves is 45 kJmol meaningthe energy barrier of reaction decreases by that amount to reactmethane on nickel surface

In order to carry out these experiments however themain chamber must be dry and not contain any gases The ma-chine is kept under vacuum at very low pressures and anytime that analysis is done the main chamber must first bebaked in order to get rid of any impurities in the chamberBaking refers to wrapping the chambers up in heat tape thenwrapping everything in aluminum foil in order to insulate theheat and prevent it from escaping In the time spent in labthere was a period of one to two weeks in which the machinewas baking so in this time period the importance of the re-search was discussed as well as how everything was ap-proached in lab The parts of the chambers were discussedhow they were fixed and any sort of troubleshooting thatcould be done during the bake was also done One major dif-ficulty that arose during this time was the position of thenickel crystal and where it was being held In the main cham-ber the crystal is attached to a small metal plate which is thenwelded to six arms which hold the crystal in place Heatingfilaments which heat the chamber are near the crystal oneof the filaments became loose so the crystal hit the filamentcausing the crystal to scratch The crystal was removed fromthe chamber breaking the vacuum which resulted in anotherthree-day bake Afterwards due to the position of the crystalchanging assistance was able to be given in order to find theoptimal positioning of the nickel crystal in order to maximizereactivity of the methane on the crystal as well as to find op-timal positions to analyze the amount of methane on the sur-face after reaction

Table 1 above shows the positioning of the crystal in regardto dosage Auger Electron spectroscopy and the sputter gunAuger Electron spectroscopy was done in order to get a modelof the nickel surface while the sputter gun was used to cleanany impurities off of the crystalrsquos surface After finding theoptimal position of the crystal in the main chamber it was be-lieved that the molecular beam could finally be run as thenickel had the clean surface however after running a residual

gas analysis using the Quadrupole Mass Spectrometer (QMS)seen in Figure 2 below it could be seen that the chamber hada large peak at 19 mz indicating the presence of fluorine inthe main chamber

This problem could have stemmed from different problemssince the chamber had been recently baked there could havebeen a possibility that there was a technological malfunctioncausing the reading above Historically the data shows thatafter baking the residual gas analysis should resemble thegraph shown in Figure 3

Though there were many issues in terms of equipmentthe skills that were gained during the summer are pricelessas being able to work on a problem hands-on is a valuableskill to have This also shows that science does not always goas expected and there are always roadblocks which you mustface and it is necessary to take on the roadblocks without giv-ing up


CoreasDel Sesto Scholar ReportContinued from page 8

1 Utz Research Group (nd) Retrieved November 2017 fromhttpasetuftseduchemistryutzprogresshtm

2 How many people does synthetic fertilizer feed (2017 November07) Retrieved November 12 2017 from httpsourworldindataorghow-many-people-does-synthetic-fertilizer-feed

3 Smith R R Killelea D R Del Sesto D F amp Utz A L (2004May 14) Preference for Vibrational over Translational Energy ina Gas-Surface Reaction Retrieved November 12 2017 fromhttpsciencesciencemagorgcontent3045673992full


Table 1 Positions ofdosage beam AugerElectron gun andthe sputter gun71117

Figure 2 Gas analysis of the main chamber on 07122017




qualifying students in a section is basedon its ACS membership Given the largenumber of members of NESACS weare allotted one of the larger groups ofqualifiers (26 participants as of 2017)

The USNCO administered nation-ally in late April consists of three partsa 60-question multiple-choice sectionan eight-question free-response sectionand as of 1995 a two-part laboratorypractical portion NESACS thanks theSimmons College Chemistry Depart-ment for the generous use of its class-room and laboratory space for the manyyears NESACS has run the chemistrycompetition Approximately 1000 stu-dents nationwide sit for the USNCOfrom this group the top 20 are selectedbased on a composite of their scoresfrom the three-part exam These 20 stu-dents are invited to attend the StudyCamp held during the first two weeks ofJune at the US Air Force Academy inColorado Springs They are providedwith college-level textbooks prior totheir arrival at the camp and are ex-pected to study and learn topics not typ-ically seen in the high school or APcurriculum such as physical chemistryadvanced organic chemistry quantita-tive analysis etc Once at the camp theAir Force Academyrsquos Chemistry De-partment provides the group with dailylectures laboratory experiments indi-vidual and group tutoring and studyingand regular assessment The two-weekcamp is intensive to say the least Threeadult mentors live in the dormitory oncampus with the 20 students At the endof the camp a series of final assess-ments is given to select the top four (and

one alternate) to proceed to the IChOThe ACS covers the expenses of theteam to the city and country of theIChO typically held in mid-July

This past yearrsquos site was NakhonPathom Thailand the 2018 site will bein Prague and Bratislava The last yearthe world competition was held in theUS was 2012 at venues in and aroundWashington DC From the first year ofparticipation by the US in 1984 withonly 45 local sections participating and76 individuals taking the USNCO therewere as of last year 144 participatingsections with 297 students at theUSNCO The level of interest has onlyincreased over the years

The connection of NESACS to theworld competition dates to 1984 whenthe US sent a team to Frankfurt Thefour-member team included PeterCapofreddi from Newton North HSAlso on that first US team was SethBrown who went on to attend MIT inthe late 1980s and is now a professor ofchemistry at Notre Dame He alsoserves as the Chairperson of theUSNCO Examinations Task Forcewhich is charged with creating eachyearrsquos written examination questions

In 1985 Glen Whitney from Med-field HS won a bronze medal at theIChO held in Bratislava Czechoslova-kia His brother Wayne represented theUS five years later winning a goldmedal at the 1990 IChO in Paris In1996 Alex MeVay of the Groton School(teacher Donald Lea) scored first placeon the Ashdown Exam went on to thestudy camp and was selected for thelsquoAlpha Deltarsquo team he won a goldmedal at the IChO in Moscow ColinWhittaker of Wayland HS (teacher JayChandler) took a silver at the 2002 IChOin Groningen The Netherlands

It took another fifteen years to 2017before another NESACS student JoshuaPark from Lexington (teacher JaniceCompton) would get to the IChOldquoFrom the moment I learned that I wasa member of Team USA I devoted allof my time to preparing for the interna-tional competitionrdquo Park said His andhis fellow teammatesrsquo devotion to chem-istry paid off big time in Thailand whenthey won four gold medals for TeamUSA a first in our countryrsquos participa-

tion at the IChOGiven the high interest from stu-

dents their teachers and schoolsthroughout NESACS I am confident wewill continue to represent the high levelof chemical education our public andprivate-school students across the sec-tion receive and the strong standingNESACS holds among other sectionsthroughout the country

For a report of Team Alpha Kapparsquosaccomplishments following last yearrsquosIChO see lthttpcenacsorgarticles95web201707US-team-makes-his-tory-IChOhtmlgtSteve Lantos wrote the Ashdown Examfrom 1989-2002 served as the Chair ofthe Laboratory Practical portion of theUSNCO from 2001-2010 and was aMentor to the USNCO Study Camp in2011 He is completing doctoral work byexamining best teaching practicesamong award-winning Boston-area highschool chemistry teachers u

Going for the GoldContinued from page 4

I would like to acknowledge theUtz research group at Tufts Universityfor allowing me the opportunity to be inlab with them as well as for teaching memany new and interesting techniquesthat I would not be able to be exposedto in other situations I would also liketo thank my research advisor ProfessorDel Sesto for introducing me to an in-teresting field in science as well as in-troducing me to a great group of peopleat Tufts UniversityReferencesHow many people does synthetic fertil-izer feed (2017 November 07) Re-trieved November 12 2017 from httpsourworldindataorghow-many-people-does-synthetic-fertilizer-feedUtz Research Group (nd) httpasetuftseduchemistryutzprogresshtmSmith R R Killelea D R Del SestoD F amp Utz A L (2004 May 14) Pref-erence for Vibrational over TranslationalEnergy in a Gas-Surface Reaction Re-trieved November 12 2017 from httpsciencesciencemagorgcontent3045673992full u

Coreas Scholar ReportContinued from page 9

Joshua Park with his teacher Janice Compton


STEM Journey IV was organized by the Cape Cod amp IslandsCouncil Boy Scouts of America the Northeastern Section ofthe American Chemical Society Sandwich STEM Academyand PID Analyzers LLC Our mission is to generate a con-tinued interest in science and related fields for K-12 studentsOur fourth such event was held on Saturday March 4 2017from 1200 Noon to 400 PM at Sandwich High SchoolSand-wich STEM Academy

The event was free and open to the public In the morn-ing there were Merit Badge opportunities for Boy Scouts in-cluding the following Digital Technology Engineering andFingerprinting Nine girl scouts and ten boy scouts signed upfor the fingerprinting class given by the Barnstable CountySheriffrsquos Office

Dr Luke Roberson Senior Research Scientist and payloadengineer at NASArsquos Kennedy Space Center Cape CanaveralFlorida was the keynote speaker Dr Roberson earned a BS(1999) a MS (2002) and a PhD (2005) from Georgia In-stitute of Technology He is deeply involved in the Mission toMars and discussed many of the issues with the mission

Dr Roberson was introduced by Dr Peter Dorhout 2017President-Elect of the American Chemical Society DrDorhout is Vice President for Research at Kansas State Uni-versity Dr Dorhout is an Eagle Scout and serves on the Ex-ecutive Board of the Coronado Area Council

He said that it was impossible to carry all the materialsneeded for a round trip mission Oxygen would have to be re-generated from the carbon dioxide exhaled by the astronauts

Water would have to be recycled and a water source wouldhave to be found on Mars (possibly extracted from the soil)An underground lake was recently reported to be on MarsLuke described the difficulties of growing plants in space butthis is something that the astronauts have been doing for sometime on the International Space Station There are many tech-nological problems that have to be solved before NASArsquos mis-sion in the 2030rsquos There were more than 400 people attendingDr Robersonrsquos lecture at the Sandwich STEM Academyrsquos au-ditorium

STEM Journey included more than 40 interactive dis-plays by a variety of businesses and organizations related toSTEMSTEM Journey IV What was Included

NASA talk was from 1230PM-2PM This is an ALL agestalk focusing on NASArsquos Mission to Mars and what got guestlecturer and NASA Technology Expert Dr Luke Robersoninterested in his STEM career field

MATE ROV underwater remotely operated vehicles in-teractive demonstrationcompetition in the pool at SandwichHigh School from 1230pm-330pm Several aquatic themedexhibits will be co-located near the pool areaHands-On Science Technology Engineering amp Math themedactivities and demonstrations occurred from noon-4PM in thegymExhibitors included Cape Light Compact Northeastern Section of the American

STEM Journey IV NASArsquos Mission toMarsBy Jack Driscoll Chair NESACS Public Relations Committee and Jennifer Maclachlan NESACS Public Relations Committee



in place of the phosphoric acid to dissolve the solid reagentsVO[acac]2(s) ZnHIDA and CaCl2 once they were placed inwater (Scheme 1) The reagent mixture immediately turned atranslucent blue color consistent with VBH2- with the additionof the acid at a pH of 024 The solution was then treated di-rectly with isopropanol (9deg C) for precipitation and resultedin a purple powder consistent with Ca2+VBH through FTIRanalysis and XRD after recrystallization in slow liquid diffu-sion with water and IprOH Typical yield for this direct pre-cipitation of Ca2+VBH is 1775 g 755 compared to 0447g 91 Ca2+VBH for the literature procedures19

The next challenge was developing a versatile scalable syn-thesis method for VBH2- compounds with varying cationsAppreciating the strength of the coordination between thevanadium(iv) and the HIDA ligands calcium salts with lowKsp values were researched with the expectation that theywould form as a solid and leave the desired product remainingin solution Calcium fluoride has a Ksp of 39 x 10-11 18 andwhen the Ca2+VBH was mixed in solution with the two fluo-ride salts of tetraethylammonium and tetrabutylammoniumproducts were obtained This method was useful in obtainingpure compounds for analysis and was also reproducible inwater DMSO PC and GBL This suggests the potential to di-rectly prepare VBH2- based electrolytes in various battery-rel-evant solvents by removing the CaF2 solid without isolationSynthesis of alkylammonium compounds in battery relevantsolventsThe compound (bis)tetraethylammonium vanadium(iv)(bis)hydroxyiminodiacetate [N2222]2VBH was synthesizedand electrolytes of 079 M in water 02 M in PC and 05 Min GBL were prepared (Figure 1) The crystal structure wasdetermined using XRD (Figure 2) and the compound was fur-ther characterized by FTIR Similarly(bis)tetrabutylammo-nium vanadium(iv)(bis)hydroxyiminodiacetate [N4444]2VBH was synthesized and electrolyte concentrations of 05M in water 076 M in THF and 058 M in GBL (Figure 1)The structure was characterized with both XRD (Figure 2)and FTIR It should be noted that these concentrations are notnecessarily the maximum concentrations achievable for thecompounds in these solvents

The exchange of the Ca2+ ion for the alkylammoniumcations and the resulting trend from Ca2+VBH being insolublein PC THF and GBL to the range of concentrations seen be-tween the three alkylammonium analogues strongly suggeststhat this would be a viable mechanism for addressing the needto increase active material concentrations in NRFB elec-trolytes This is important because the concentration of active-material in an electrolyte solution directly correlates with itsenergy density

ConclusionsUtilizing the unique binding strength of VBH2- and the lowKsp of calcium fluoride two alkylammonium VBH com-pounds were produced at high concentration in battery-rele-vant solvents The counter cation has a direct effect onsolubility and will continue to be investigated both in termsof synthesis and electrochemical analysis The fact that higherconcentrations of alkylammonium salts of VBH2- were ob-tainable in all solvents investigated compared to Ca2+ sug-gests that factors affecting the lattice enthalpy rather thansolute-solvent interactions are more important in determiningthe solubility The ability to directly synthesize active materi-als in NRFB solvents could provide advantages commerciallyin terms of ease of synthesis and scalabilityAcknowledgementsThe authors would like to thank Dr James Golen for the X-ray crystallographyCitations1 Huang H Howland R Agar E Nourani M Golen J

Cappilllino P Bioinspired High Stability NonaqueousRedox Flow Battery Electrolytes J Mater Chem A 2016

2 G Anderegg E Koch and E Bayer Inorg Chim Acta1987 127 183ndash188 continued on page 14

HowlandCappillino Scholar ReportContinued from page 7

Scheme 1 Ca2+VBH synthesis modification with the original pathwayfrom literature in red and showing the use of the ion exchange column andthe new method shown with the blue arrow and going directly from the Zn-HIDA to Ca2+VBH

Figure 2 X-ray crystal structures of bis-TMA (a) bis-TEA (b) and bis-TBA (a) [VBH] compounds Thermal ellipsoids at 40 probability for(a) and (b) and 30 for (c) Atoms labels show the position of the vana-dium ion and the four donor atoms of one of the two ligands in all threestructures

Figure 1 UV-vis spectra of solutions of[TBA]2[VBH] in γ-BL (a) and THF (b)and [TEA]2[VBH] in H2O (c) after di-lution Blank spectra are shown withblack lines in (a) (b) and (c) A photo-graph of 076 M [TBA][VBH] in THF isshown in the inset of (b) Concentra-tions are calculated using the ab-sorbance and extinction coefficient of[VBH] at 825 nm of 248 M-1cm-1


sponsored event held at NortheasternUniversity on December 5th Four es-tablished successful chemists spoke oftheir experiences from both having andbeing mentors Throughout the presen-tations a common theme surfaced andsent a powerful message about the ben-efits of mentoring Opening remarkswere given by Dr Mindy Levine NE-SACS 2018 Chair Mindy shared someobservations on her experiences withher past mentors including some directpieces of advice she has received somehelpful somehellip not so helpful The goalof this symposium was to share the wis-dom from years of experience to stu-dents and early career scientists to guidethem in their scientific journey Thesewere the highlights from each speaker

Dr Morton Hoffman ProfessorEmeritus Boston University spoke ofhis friendships with his mentors andmentees and of the benefits of being amentor in academia These include thegood feelings gained from helping some-one and gaining a life-long friend Mentors helping new professors alsohumanize an academic department byencouraging people to talk to each otherHe summarized with an observationeverybody needs a mentor althoughsome hesitate to reach out for help

Dr Dorothy Phillips Retired Wa-ters Corporation introduced her presen-tation by defining mentoring as a keyelement of leadership She spoke of thementors she has had during her career asclose friends While moving up the in-dustry career ladder she received keypieces of advice including one from aclose friend and colleague who stressedpublishing one paper a year She alsotalked about how she asked for mentor-ing when serving in the National ACSleadership Her plan when seeking ad-vice was to introduce herself to one ofthe leaders ask for some time and pre-pare specific questions for her prospec-tive mentor Dorothy ended her talk byspecifying her most important mentor-ing relationships her family

Dr Tom Gilbert Associate Profes-sor Northeastern University0 shared hisobservations on what it takes to be an ef-fective mentor a strong base of knowl-

Mentoring InitiativeContinued from page 2

Chemical Society (NESACS) RhodeIsland Section of the American Chemi-cal Society Palladium Science Acad-emy of NY Teledyne Inc SandwichSTEM Academy National Marine LifeCenter Frogmen Divers CambridgeScience Festivalrsquos Science on the StreetWoods Hole Oceanographic InstitutionndashApplied Ocean Physics and Engineeringdepartment Marine Renewable EnergyCollaborative RC Flying Club of CapeCod (Drones) Barnstable AmateurRadio Club Barnstable County SherriffThe Math Learning Center of Cape CodWhydah Pirate Museum Wicked CoolFun for Kids UMASS BostonSTEM RESOURCES FOR EDU-CATORSAmerican Association of ChemistryTeachers (AACT) Cape Cod Museumof Natural History American Associa-tion of Chemistry Teachers (AACT)

American Industrial Hygiene Associa-tion uuml American Chemical SocietySTEM-RELATED GROUPS MU-SEUMS CAMPS PRE-SCHOOLPROGRAMCape Cod Technology Council CapeCod Museum Trail Cape Cod amp Is-lands Council Boy Scouts of AmericaThe Hundred Acre School at HeritageMuseums amp GardensRECRUITERS FROM THE FOL-LOWING COLLEGESUNIVERSI-TIESBristol Community College SuffolkUniversity Benjamin Franklin Instituteof Technology Wentworth Institute ofTechnology Cape Cod CommunityCollege Massachusetts Maritime Acad-emy Wheaton College U Mass Dart-mouth U Mass Boston BridgewaterState UniversitySTEM Journey IV Organizersbull Eben Franks - Chairman- STEM

Journeybull Dr Jack Driscoll - CCC BSA Execu-

tive Board NESACS- PR Chair PIDAnalyzers STEM Journey

bull Jennifer Maclachlan - NESACS PRPID Analyzers CPRC Chair - Amer-ican Chemical Society

bull Michael Riley - CCC Boy Scouts ofAmerica Executive Director

bull Gilbert Newton - Sandwich STEMAcademy

Publicity for STEM Journey IVhttpswwwcapecodcomeventsstem-journey-iv-nasas-mission-to-marshttpanalyzersourceblogspotcom201703what-to-expect-if-you-are-attend-inghtmlhttpanalyzersourceblogspotcom201701stem-journey-iv-mission-to-marshtmlhttpwwwsandwichk12orgnewsstory-details~poststem-journey-iv-mis-sion-to-mars-20170206httpswwwfacebookcomSandwich-STEM-Academy-891599570946068httpswwwnasagovcontentjourney-to-mars-overview Cape Cod Broadcasting Media Inter-view amp Science Outreach-JennniferMaclachlanExpand the Reach of your Outreach Ac-

Mission to MarsContinued from page 11

edge and experience and an understand-ing of the value of being a mentor- thatyou lift yourself by lifting up othersTom told us of a mentor-turned-collab-orator who helped him grow as a teacherby understanding the needs of the stu-dents Among the mentors Tom spoke ofwas our final speaker Dr Vouros withwhom Tom described as the ldquoquintes-sential mentorrdquo

Dr Paul Vouros Professor Emeri-tus Northeastern University talked ofmentoring as something that can comenaturally not having to be planned Heuses his past positive experiences withmentors to inform his own mentorshipHis description of a good mentor in-cluded knowledge and excellence in thefield of study patience warmth and aninterest in studentsrsquo goals and objectives

The undercurrent of warmthfriendship and collaboration ran througheach presentation and served to inspirethe audience We are extremely gratefulfor the opportunity to learn how to bementors from these excellent speakers

Looking ahead to 2018 we plan tohost more events targeting the differentdemographics represented by each ofthe three committees and expand ournetwork to other organizations in theGreater Boston Area u continued on page 14


3 Weber AZ Mench MM MeyersJP et al J Appl Electrochem (2011)411137httpsdoiorg101007s10800-011-0348-2

4 G L Soloveichik Chem Rev 2015115 11533ndash11558

5 US Energy Information administra-tion Short-Term Energy Outlook(STEO) September 2016 httpswwweiagovforecastssteoarchivesmay16pdf accessed September 292016 2016

6 J Winsberg T Hagemann TJanoschka M D Hager and U SSchubert Angew Chem Int Ed2016 55 2ndash28

7 S Ha and K G Gallagher J PowerSources 2015 296 122ndash 132

8 V Viswanathan A Crawford DStephenson S Kim W Wang B LiG Coffey E Thomsen G Graff PBalducci M Kintner-Meyer and VSprenkle J Power Sources 2014247 1040ndash1051


10 J D Milshtein A P Kaur M D Cas-selman J A Kowalski S ModekruttiP L Zhang N Harsha Attanayake CF Elliott S R Parkin C Risko F RBrushett and S A Odom Energy En-viron Sci 2016 9 3531ndash3543

11 Gong Q Fang S Gu S F Y Li andY Yan Energy Environ Sci 2015 83515ndash3530

12 W T Duan R S Vemuri J D Mil-shtein S Laramie R D Dmello JH Huang L Zhang D H Hu M Vi-jayakumar W Wang J Liu R MDarling L Thompson K Smith J SMoore F R Brushett and X L WeiJ Mater Chem A 2016 4 5448ndash5456

13 E V Carino J Staszak-Jirkovsky RS Assary L A Curtiss N MMarkovic and F R Brushett ChemMater 2016 28 2529ndash2539

14 P J Cappillino H D Pratt N SHudak N C Tomson T M Ander-son and M R Anstey Adv EnergyMater 2014 4 1300566

15 Shinkle A E S Sleightholme L DGriffith L T Thompson and C WMonroe J Power Sources 2012 206

490ndash49616 ldquoResearchers building flow battery

prototype to augment gridrdquo TheDaily 28 June 2017 thedailycaseeduresearchers-building-flow-bat-tery-prototype-augment-grid (httpthedailycaseeduresearchers-building-flow-battery-prototype-aug-ment-grid)

17 D C Harris Quantitative ChemicalAnalysis 8 ed WH Freeman andcompany New York 2010 p 796

18 Patnaik P Handbook of InorganicChemicals 1 ed McGraw-Hill Pro-fessional New York 2002 p 1086

19 P D Smith R E Berry S M Har-ben R L Beddoes 10 M HelliwellD Collison and C David Garner JChem Soc Dalton Trans 19974509ndash4516 DOI 101039A703683C u

HowlandCappillino Continued from page 12

tivities CampE News March 6 2017p 40 Sandwich TV- httpsvimeocom203127565Podcast- httpsmyoutubecomwatchv=FNCJUnLZynoSummarySTEM Journey was our first event atSandwich STEM Academy This loca-tion provided all activities in one placewhich is an advantage on cold wintrydays in New England in March The au-ditorium the pool for the Mate ROVand the Gym for the 50+ exhibitors wereon the first and second floors

We had more than 800 excited par-ents and K-12 students at this event Wetalked to several 5th grade students andasked what they were interested in thefuture ant it was ldquoArcheologyrdquo a num-ber of scouts indicated a strong interestin science (note that nearly 80 of themerit badges are STEM related) a num-ber of students said that this was theldquobest STEM Journey everrdquo u


depth of the investigation the signifi-cance of the scientific questions youpose and the methods you propose touse

bull feasibility - evidence must be providedto demonstrate that the project can becompleted by you in the time availableand with the facilities at your disposal

bull preparation - your academic recordyour ability to handle the project andthe background study you have madeon your research problem will be takeninto consideration

bull commitment - the depth of your com-mitment and that of your departmentfaculty and institution to independentresearch as a vital component of sci-ence education will be assessed Application for 2018 bull Announcement Letter bull Instructions bull Student Application Formbull Faculty Information FormApplication available at httpwwwnesacsorgawards_norris-richardshtmlCompleted applications are to be re-ceived by the Chair of the SelectionCommittee no later than March 292018 Please note that applications viaemail (PDF format) are strongly pre-ferred Applicants will be notified of theresults by email by April 13 2018 withwritten confirmation to follow Selection Committee Chair

EmailjonathanrochfordumbeduProfessor Jonathan RochfordDepartment of ChemistryUniversity of Massachusetts Boston100 Morrissey BoulevardBoston MA 02125-3393 u

Richards ScholarshipContinued from page 5

JoinNESACS

on facebookwwwfacebookcomnesacs


SERVICESSERVICES

B U S I N E S S D I R E C T O R Y

SERVICES

Index of AdvertisersDrew University 4Eastern Scientific Co 16Micron Inc 15NuMega Resonance Labs15Organix Inc 15PCI Synthesis15Robertson Microlit Labs15Tyger Scientific Inc 15

Check the NESACS home pagefor late Calendar additionshttpwwwNESACSorgNote also the Chemistry Department webpages for travel directions and updatesThese includehttpwwwbceduschoolscaschemistrys

eminarshtmlhttpwwwbueduchemistryseminarshttpwwwbrandeisedudepartmentschem

istryeventsindexhtmlhttpchemistryharvardeducalendarupco

minghttpwwwnortheasterneducoschemistry

events-2httpchemistrymitedueventsallhttpchemtuftseduseminarshtmlhttpengineeringtuftseduchbenewsEven

tsseminarSeriesindexasphttpwwwchemumbeduhttpwwwumassdeducaschemistryhttpwwwumleduScienceschemistrySe

minars-and-Colloquiaaspxhttpwwwunheduchemistryeventshttpswwwwpieduacademicsdepartmen

tschemistry-biochemistry

January 30Prof Eliot Chaikof (Beth Israel-DeaconessMedical Center) Tufts Pearson Rm P106 430 pm

February 1Prof Jessica Hoover (West Virginia)ldquoCopper-Catalyzed Oxidative DecarboxylativeCoupling ReactionsrdquoWPI Gateway Park Room 1002 1200 pmProf Aaron Beeler (Boston University)Dartmouth Steele Rm 006 1030 am

February 6Prof Heather Kulik (MIT) U of New Hampshire Parsons N104 1110 amProf Revati Kumar (LSU) Tufts Pearson Rm P106 430 pm

February 7Prof Trevor Hayton (UCal-Santa Barbara)Harvard Pfizer Lecture Hall415 pm

February 8Prof Helma Wennemers (ETH Zurich) amp DrJonathan Reeves (Boehringer-Ingelheim)MIT Room 6-120400 pmProf Yoan Simon (Univ Southern Mississippi) WPI Gateway Park Room 10021200 pm

February 12Prof Amit R Reddi (Georgia Tech)MIT Room 4-270 400 pm

February 13Prof Ian Tonks (U of Minnesota)Boston College Merkert 130 400 pmDr Simon Bonyhady (Lanxess)ldquoAn Inorganic Chemistrsquos First Year in IndustryrdquoUniv New Hampshire Parsons N1041110 amProf Matthew Shoulders (MIT) Tufts Pearson Rm P106 430 pm

February 15Prof Andy Gewirth (Illinois-UrbanaChampaign)Boston College Merkert 130 400 pmProf X Peter Zhang (Boston College) WPI Gateway Park Room 10021200 pmProf Amit R Reddi (Georgia Tech)Dartmouth Steele Rm 006 1030 AM

February 20Prof Sherine Elsawa (Univ New Hampshire)Univ New Hampshire Parsons N1041110 AMProf Erin Iski (University of Tulsa) Tufts Pearson Rm P106 430 pm

February 21Prof Hemamala Karunadasa (Stanford)MIT Room 4-370 415 pm

February 22Prof Jen Heemstra (Emory)Boston College Merkert 130400 pmProf Ryan Shenvi (Scripps Research Institute)Dartmouth Steele Rm 006 1030 am

February 26Prof Benjamin Cravatt (Scripps ResearchInstitute)MIT Room 4-270 400 pm

February 27Prof Gonghu Li (Univ New Hampshire)ldquoSurface Molecular Catalysis for Solar FuelResearchrdquoUniv New Hampshire Parsons N1041110 amDr Nicholas Yoder (ImmunoGen Inc) Tufts Pearson Rm P106 430 pm

February 28Prof Deborah Perlstein (Boston University)Boston College Merkert 130400 pm

Notices for The NucleusCalendar of Seminars should besent toXavier Herault emailxheraultoutlookcom u

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18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

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The idea for the NESACS Multi-Gener-ational Mentoring Initiative was con-ceived as a collaboration of the YoungerChemists Committee (YCC) WomenChemists Committee (WCC) and Sen-ior Chemists Committee (SCC) led byCatherine Rawlins Carol Mulrooneyand Morton Hoffman respectively

We recognized that there wereoverlapping goals of these three com-mittees and successfully received an In-novative Projects Grant from the ACSThere are many stages of your career inwhich mentoring is needed and wesought to combine our efforts to reach abroader audience as a team Thus farthree events have been run in 2017under this initiativeKnow Your Worth Workshop withAshley PareDuring the Fall 2017 NSYCC CareerSymposium at Boston University weorganized a workshop on building salarynegotiation skills This stemmed from

the Wage Gap Panel hosted by the WCCin April 2017 Because of the new EqualPay laws in Massachusetts there is aneed for more training on salary negoti-ation as a way to close the gender wagegap

This workshop was run by AshleyPare an expert on teaching negotiationskills with 10+ years in human resourceswhose company Own Your Worth LLCleads workshops in the Greater BostonArea Ashley presented information onthe wage gap among chemists and pre-sented resources for chemists to find outwhat the expected salary range is forchemists of different backgrounds in in-dustry The undergraduate and graduatestudents attending the symposiumlearned about the need to negotiate theirsalary when starting their industry ca-reers In interactive sessions the audi-ence practiced negotiating by role-playing employer and prospective em-ployee salary conversations In the feed-

back from the post-symposium surveysmany cited this workshop as their fa-vorite part of the dayrsquos events and feltthat the training was valuableGraduate Programs in ChemistryDeciding Getting in and SucceedingThis panel discussion was geared to-wards undergraduate chemistry studentsconsidering graduate school and was co-hosted by the Department of Chemistryat Bridgewater State University Thefour panelists ranged in experience froma BSU alumna in her first year in a grad-uate program to a University Professorin charge of graduate admissions Thepanelists participating were PhoebeKurriss graduate student at Brown Uni-versity Catherine Rawlins graduate stu-dent at Northeastern and a co-host of thepanel Dr Mindy Levine Associate Pro-fessor at University of Rhode Islandand Dr Carla Mattos Professor at North-eastern University Carol Mulrooneychair of the NESACS Women ChemistsCommittee moderated the discussion

Utilizing resources from the ACSthe discussion started with the decisionto go to graduate school and moved towhat the undergraduates would need todo to prepare themselves for the experi-ence The second part of the discussionrevolved around each year of graduateschool and what the milestones are thatthe students can expect to achieve dur-ing their time The presentation includednumerous references to the ACS websiteand the extensive resources available toundergraduate and graduate studentsPizza and refreshments were served be-fore the panel and students were giventhe opportunity to network with the pan-elists after the event We plan to directmore events such as this to undergradu-ate-only institutions to reach a broaderaudiencePerspectives on a Life in ChemistryMentoringThis symposium was the third IPG

The NESACS Multi-GenerationalMentoring InitiativeBy Carol Mulrooney NESACS Women Chemists Committee Chair and Catherine Rawlins NESACS YCC PastChair






























R










phone 973408-3787 fax 973408-3504













630 pm Dinner








Dr Teri Quinn Gray










continued on page 7























continued on page 9







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

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ORTH

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SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052





























R










phone 973408-3787 fax 973408-3504













630 pm Dinner








Dr Teri Quinn Gray










continued on page 7























continued on page 9







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052












630 pm Dinner








Dr Teri Quinn Gray










continued on page 7























continued on page 9







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052









continued on page 7























continued on page 9







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052























continued on page 9







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

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N CH

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LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052







































































































JoinNESACS



SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052


SERVICESSERVICES


SERVICES

























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052
























NO

NPRO

FIT ORG

U

S POSTA

GE PA

IDN

ORTH

EASTERN

SECTIO

NA

MERICA

N CH

EMICA

LSO

CIETY

Calendar

18 Tamarack Road

Medfield M

A 02052

Summer Scholar Report The NESACS Multi- · 2018-01-22 · At its November meeting, NESACS...

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Transcript of Summer Scholar Report The NESACS Multi- · 2018-01-22 · At its November meeting, NESACS...