Climate change and global air pollution are the world’s two most serious issues. Negative carbon and polluted air capture are critical strategies for addressing rising CO₂ and air pollution levels. State-of-the-art materials design at the atomic level is in high demand, and their fundamental mechanism must be revealed using cutting-edge microscopic and spectroscopic methodologies. As a result, the utilization of sustainable materials (e.g.

Semi-aromatic polyesters derived from petroleum are an important class of polymers that encompass a wide variety of thermal and mechanical properties. Unfortunately, replacing the aromatic component with cost-competitive bioderived monomers is an ongoing challenge. In this presentation, we describe the synthesis of nine different polyesters made from AB monomers that can be derived from lignin, and include full characterization of their thermal, mechanical, and rheological properties.

The second harmonic generation (SHG) is a nonlinear coherent second-order scattering process that causes frequency doubling of incident light. It is widely used in laser technology, spectroscopy, microscopy, wireless communication technology and fiber-optic communication systems. The main requirement for the SHG process is the noncentrosymmetry of the material, since the second-order susceptibility coefficient, which is responsible for the second harmonic generation, is zero in all centrosymmetric structures.

Zoom link for seminar: https://zoom.us/j/92955070680

Hydrocarbons of all shapes and sizes are found throughout the various stages of star- and planet formation. Recently, using radio astronomical observations, a variety of cyclic- and even polycyclic hydrocarbons have been detected in the very cold (10 K) Taurus molecular cloud. These detections challenge our understanding of the chemical formation mechanisms under these low-temperature and low-density conditions.

Ammonia (NH₃) is important in the production of many products including fertilizers, plastics, resins, synthetic fabrics, and explosives. At the industrial scale, NH₃ is produced using the Haber–Bosch (H–B) process, which is typically carried out at high temperatures and pressures. This process produces over 300 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year, and consumes 1-2% of the world’s energy supply.

Aerosols can have significant impact on the environment and health based on their chemical composition. It’s imperative to understand the chemical composition at the single particle level as it has influence on ice nucleation potential, cloud condensing nuclei potential and radiative forcing.¹ Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an emerging technique for online analysis of single particle aerosol composition.

Earth’s atmosphere stores a significant amount of organic carbon as part of the global carbon cycle.

From respiration to nitrogen fixation, iron-containing enzymes catalyze some of the most critical biological processes. These enzymes exploit their complex protein architecture to manipulate the chemical properties of their iron center and execute a diverse array of biochemical reactions. The Bhagi-Damodaran lab is dedicated to elucidating the structural and mechanistic foundations of iron enzyme function and developing small-molecule discovery and computational protein engineering strategies to optimize their biological capabilities.