Chemistry and Materials Science Seminar: Symmetry, Topology & Bottom-Up Synthetic Design of Schwarzites

Chemistry and Materials Science Seminar
Symmetry, Topology & Bottom-Up Synthetic Design of Schwarzites

Dr. Alexey Ingatchenko
Associate Professor
St. John Fisher University

Abstract:
Schwarzites are theoretical carbon allotropes characterized by their continuous, negatively curved surfaces with three-dimensional periodicity. There is a considerable interest to these hypothetical materials due to their high surface area, porosity, tunable electrical properties, and exceptional mechanical strength combined with their low density. Unfortunately, their preparation for the last thirty years was not successful when the same methods were attempted as for the bulk synthesis of fullerenes and nanotubes. Schwarzites are highly symmetrical structures and plans for their bottom-up synthesis from small building blocks must rely on symmetry and a carefully planned stepwise approach. In this talk various Schwarzite structures will be analyzed based on symmetry, topology, and the complexity of their assembly from small organic molecules using well known methods: Diels-Alder and radical domino additions, Ullmann, Suzuki, and Heck couplings. A progress toward synthesis of the most convenient building block – a trimer of heptagons – will be discussed.

Speaker Bio:
Dr. Alexey Ignatchenko was born in Moscow, Russia, and received his B.S. and Ph.D. in organic chemistry from the Moscow State University. From an early age he had an opportunity to travel widely in Europe and Asia, and now has a total 26 countries visited on his list. While in college he took part in numerous expeditions in the Russian North territories, helping with the chemical preservation of historical wooden churches. Painting, writing, and the art of cooking are some of his hobbies started early in his life.
He began his academic career in 2012 at St. John Fisher College (now University) where he currently teaches organic and computational chemistry. His research interests include: 1) Heterogeneous catalysis and reaction mechanisms, 2) DFT computational modeling of reactions on surfaces, 3) Technology for bio-fuels and bio-chemicals production, 4) Electrochemical method of ammonia synthesis, 5) Multistep organic synthesis, and 6) Chemical topology.
For the past 12 years at Fisher he has actively involved 45 undergraduate students in his experimental and computational research in chemistry on surfaces. Prior to joining the St. John Fisher Chemistry Department he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Florida in Gainesville, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was then employed at the Eastman Chemical Research Laboratories for 8 years. Dr. Ignatchenko has authored 12 patents and over two dozen publications. He is also the inventor of the “inside GC pulse microreactor” – a readily available alternative to the Temporal Analysis of Products (TAP) Reactor System, a transient pulse response reactor for collecting detailed mechanistic and kinetic information on complex industrial catalysts and chemically active surfaces.
Alexey had also been active in both the National and Rochester Section of the ACS. He was the Organizer of the ACS Spring 2019 catalysis symposium “Elucidation of Mechanisms & Kinetics on Surfaces” at the ACS Division of Catalysis Science and Technology, and the Catalysis session at the NERM 2022 regional meeting of the ACS, and founded the ACS co-sponsored Chemical Demonstration Center at SJF, that is a resource for area high school chemistry teachers and presents an annual Chemical Demonstration Show for the general public.

Intended Audience:
All are Welcome!

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