Amy Keirstead's research on ionic liquids featured in an American Chemical Society annual report

Research by Amy Keirstead, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Physics, was featured in the 57th Annual Report on Research  2012 Under Sponsorship of the ACS Petroleum Research Fund. The American Chemical Society awarded Keirstead a $50,000 grant in 2011 for a project titled "Using the Photo-Fries Reaction as a Photochemical Probe to Quantify the Cage Effects of Ionic Liquids."

In this project, Keirstead and her team of UNE undergraduate students are determining the "cage effect" of ionic liquids.  Ionic liquids are an interesting class of materials that are being considered for a wide variety of applications, including chemical synthesis and catalysis, hosts for molecular electronic devices and electrically conducting fluids for batteries and photovoltaic cells. Most systems currently use organic solvents that are volatile, so evaporation of these solvents into the atmosphere has a negative impact on the environment. Due to their low volatility and recyclability, ionic liquids are considered "green solvents" for these applications, but many questions about their properties still remain unanswered. By measuring their "cage effect", or how molecules are restricted in ionic liquids, Keirstead and her team will be able to contribute valuable information towards the design of more environmentally friendly solvents and devices.

Keirstead notes that the ACS PRF grant has been essential in helping to develop her research agenda, and with this grant, her research program "has really taken off." The award has allowed her to support undergraduate summer research, and the ACS PRF funding enables her students to travel with her to attend conferences and to present their results at symposia. 

Last year, Keirstead and several of her UNE colleagues (Ursula Roese, Amy Deveau, Teresa Dzieweczynski, Stephan Zeeman) received a Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) grant from NSF to purchase a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer that is used in her work on cage effects. "I strongly feel that because I had ACS PRF support for my research, it helped us acquire that instrument. So, it's not just a two-year award, but an investment in the future of my research program and my students." Read the story.

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