Spring 2009 Student Travel Grant

The Milwaukee Section awarded travel awards to two undergraduate students from Carroll University, Stacy Gates and Jasen Stephany, and two graduate students from UW-Milwaukee, Chitra Edwankar and Rahul Edwankar. These four students each received $300 to support their attendance and research presentation at the Spring National ACS Meeting and Exposition in Salt Lake City, Utah from March 22-26, 2009.

Ms. Gates, a senior chemistry major with a secondary education minor, conducted research in Summer 2008 at the Idaho National Laboratory as part of a teacher pre-service program. The title of her poster was ?Removal of Actinides from Fuel Samples Using Manual Gas Pressurized Extraction Chromatography with TRUTM Resin Column.? The efficacy of a TRUTM resin column to remove actinides from fabricated fuels was tested using gas pressurized extraction chromatography followed by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry analysis. The chromatography system removes the actinides from the matrix, which allows for simpler analyses, less exposure and lower detection limits. The column was tested with surrogate samples in nitric and hydrochloric acid matrices and applied to fuel samples containing plutonium and americium. The TRUTM column with nitric acid matrix retained actinides while not retaining trace metals. TRUTM column with hydrochloric acid matrix worked well for the retention of uranium and plutonium but was unable to retain americium due to a low k? value. The results of the fabricated fuel samples were extremely promising. Plutonium and americium were retained with the TRUTM column and recoveries were nearly 100%.

Jasen Stephany, a senior chemistry major who will be attending graduate school in physical chemistry next fall, conducted research in Summer 2008 with Dr. Michael Schuder as part of Carroll University?s Pioneer Scholars Summer Research Program. The title of his presentation was ?High-resolution IR Spectroscopy of Nitromethane ? An Explosive Study.? A Pb-salt tunable diode laser was utilized to generate high-resolution IR absorption spectrum for nitromethane. The spectrum was highly congested with transitional band overlap, so the nitromethane gas was pushed through a slit supersonic expansion using argon as a carrier gas. The expansion of nitromethane into a vacuum caused a drop in temperature and the population to reside in fewer rotational states. The carbon-nitrogen stretch vibrational transitions were analyzed. The vibrational transitions were located with the aid of molecular modeling software and the rotational transitions of each were assigned. Rotational and vibrational constants for an asymmetric top were fitted to the observed spectrum. Future studies from this project lead toward relating vibrational frequencies of nitromethane to larger, explosive molecules such as nitrobenzene and finding similarities for the purpose of developing a method to remotely detect trace particles of explosive species.

Rahul V. Edwankar is a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee under the direction of Dr. James Cook. Rahul graduated from the University of Mumbai with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1998 followed by completing his Master of Science degree in organic chemistry in 2000. At UWM, he conducts research in the area of organic synthesis and medicinal chemistry focused on total synthesis of antimalarial bisindole alkaloids which can and have been used as medicinal agents for ailments plaguing humans across the globe, including treatment of drug-resistant malaria. Also, he has developed a GABA-subtype selective benzodiazepine ligand which has very potent anticonvulsant activity. During the course of this synthesis, he has developed new organic synthetic methods that are extremely valuable to the chemical community.

Chitra R. Edwankar is a graduate student at UW-Milwaukee under the direction of Dr. James Cook. Chitra graduated from the University of Mumbai with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1997 followed by completing his Master of Science degree in organic chemistry in 1999.Chitra?s research is focused on total synthesis of antimalarial bisindole alkaloids which can and have been used as medicinal agents for ailments plaguing humans across the globe, including treatment of drug-resistant malaria. During the course of this synthesis, she has developed new organic synthetic methods that are extremely valuable to the chemical community.