Author: Steven Tai-hsiang Chao Title: Designer Benzimidazoles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Applications Supervising Professor: Christopher W. Bielawski, Ph.D. The research presented in this thesis is centered on the design and synthesis of molecules which are derived from benzimidazoles and their applications. The first chapter provides an introduction to benzimidazoles and N-heterocyclic ...

Aluminum is the most earth-abundant metal, trivalent, inert in ambient humid air, and has a density approximately four-times that of lithium at room temperature. These attributes make it an attractive material for cost-effective, long-duration storage electrical energy batteries. Scientific discoveries past decade have established secondary Al batteries can be created by paring anode with graph...

The non-metal cation pentaborate(1-) salt [p-H2NC6H4CH2NH3] [B5O6(OH)4] 1/2H2O (1) was synthesised from B(OH)3 and p-H2NC6H4CH2NH2 and crystallized from aqueous solution. Compound 1 was characterized by thermal (TGA/DSC), spectroscopic (IR, NMR) and single-crystal X-ray diffraction methods and it was found to crystallize in the non-centrosymmetric point group P21. Powder SHG measurements on 1 a...

Recently developed technology permits to optimize simultaneously surface area, porosity, density, rigidity and surface morphology of chitin-derived materials of biomedical interest. Safe and ecofriendly disassembly of chitin has superseded the dangerous acid hydrolysis and provides higher yields and scaling-up possibilities: the chitosan nanofibrils are finding applications in reinforced bone s...

The reaction of propargyl amines with tert-butylisonitrile in the presence of a catalytic amount of both Yb(OTf)3 and AgOTf afforded imidazoles, whereas the same reaction with primary and secondary alkylisonitriles, as well as arylisonitriles, in the presence of three metal salts [Yb(OTf)3/AgOTf/KOTf] resulted in the 1,3,4,5-tetrasubstituted imidazoliums in excellent yields. Both chiral amines ...

Macrocycles based on neutral calixarenes and calixpyrroles have been extensively explored for ion binding, molecular assembly and related applications. Given that only these two types of calix compounds and their analogs are available, the introduction of new forms of widely usable calix macrocycles is an outstanding challenge. Here we report the quadruply/quintuply charged imidazole-based homo...

Synthesis of imidazolium carboxylate compounds was efficiently achieved by electrochemical reduction of imidazolium precursors under very mild conditions.