Chemistry

C-AACs focus is on the analysis of samples in actinide matrices, including determination of the assay and isotopic composition of metals and oxides and trace impurities. C-AAC provides the highest quality actinide analytical chemistry services to our customers while meeting negotiated turnaround time and budget requirements. Sample analyses are carried out under modern quality assurance protocols appropriate to the customers needs.

Atmospheric Integrated Research for Understanding Chemistry at Interfaces is a research team based at the University of California, Irvine that focuses on research into chemical reactions at the air/water interface and how they affect the atmosphere.

Our program has a single overarching goal: to synthesize and to understand the basic principles governing properties and behavior of novel materials and structures. Our program is committed to world-class research currently focusing on two classes of solid-state materials:(1) Metal-rich inorganic solid-state phases including quasicrystalline materials; and (2) Macromolecular systems. In both classes, development of heretofore-unknown materials is emphasized. A synergistic combination of experiment and theory involving multi-disciplinary approaches is a hallmark of the program. Within the first class, metal-rich solid-state phases, topics of investigation are electronic stabilization; atomic structure; surface structure and properties; solute effects; and macroscopic growth. a particular strength is our work on quasicrystalline materials, which constitute a subset of metal-rich solid-state phases. Within the second class, macromolecular systems, the emphasis is on the development of novel polymeric and polymer-inorganic bioinspired materials that exhibit self-assembly at multiple length scales. An important aspect is the development of nuclear magnetic resonance techniques for characterization of these bioinspired materials.

Chemistry and biology are typically viewed as discrete academic disciplines, yet the two are highly integrated. Today, scientists increasingly use chemical tools to study dynamic biological processes at the gene, cellular, and organismal level. The Broad Institute's Chemical Biology program applies this approach to biomedical research and the pursuit of new methods to ameliorate disease. Its activities aim to diminish existing and future gaps between biology and medicine.

Both science and the economy in the 21st century will require technological breakthroughs in the control of nanometer scale structure and functions, where the top-down approach of electronics manufacture converges with the bottom-up assembly of biology. At this moment, the scientific questions are being formulated, the required tools are being developed, and the possible applications of nanotechnologies and applications will be revolutionary. The University of California, Los Angeles and University of California, Santa Barbara have joined to build the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), which will facilitate a multidisciplinary approach to develop the information, biomedical, and manufacturing technologies that will dominate science and the economy in the 21st century.

Cebic's research program addresses many interrelated, molecular-level questions regarding the fate and function of trace metals in aquatic systems, particularly marine systems. Cebic is a unit of the Princeton Environmental Institute.

The Center for Environmental Kinetics Analysis (CEKA) is an initiative to catalyze a deeper understanding of molecular issues related to environmental chemical kinetics, especially as related to geochemical cycling of elements, fate and transport of contaminants, and carbon sequestration within the critical zone. Our Center will integrate a collaborative community of students, scientists, and engineers drawn from academia, government, and industry to study environmental chemical kinetics and scaling issues in a coherent and integrative framework wherein experimental and theoretical advances can be accomplished with an eye toward better understanding of dynamic natural systems.

CEMS represents the collaborations of research scientists from Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory that focus on the molecular basis for the behavior of environmental contaminants in natural and engineered systems. Stony Brook and Brookhaven researchers, who are joined by scientists at Temple University and Penn State University, draw from the critical disciplines of chemistry, geochemistry, physics, microbiology, and materials science. Using a broad array of tools, including synchrotron radiation techniques, CEMS addresses complex environmental problems that affect society. CEMS is an Environmental Molecular Science Institute funded by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy, with support from Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

The Brookhaven National Laboratory Center for Functional Nanomaterials will provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate and study nanoscale materials. Functional materials are those which exhibit a predetermined chemical or physical response to external stimuli. The Center's focus is to achieve a basic understanding of how these materials respond when in nanoscale form. Nanomaterials--typically on the scale of billionths of a meter--offer different chemical and physical properties than bulk materials, and have the potential to form the basis of new technologies.

About 80 percent of the U.S. population live in metropolitan areas. These urban residents face a number of pressing environmental problems including exposure to toxic chemicals from contaminated sites, landfills, incinerators, abandoned industrial sites (Brownfields), industrial releases, lead, and pesticide use. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) established the Hazardous Substance Research Centers (HSRC) Program to develop better, more cost-effective, faster, and safer methods to assess and clean-up environments contaminated with hazardous substances. Johns Hopkins University has received an award from EPA as the lead institution for a new HSRC.

The Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Washington was created in 1997. It brings together faculty members and students from the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Engineering, Pharmacy, and the School of Medicine. The Center enjoys major financial support from the University of Washington Initiatives Fund (UIF) and National Science Foundation Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (NSF-IGERT) program.

Within Chemical and Biological Sciences, three research divisions existEnvironmental Sciences, Fundamental Interactions and Molecular Processes. Environmental Sciences researchers study the chemical and physical aspects of chemical carcinogenesis by advanced laser techniques. They are also working to develop new approaches and to improve on existing technologies relevant to gene mapping and to DNA sequencing. The Fundamental Interactions division consists of Chemical Physics, in which research on the fundamental reactions in combustion and the nature of heterogeneous catalysis is performed, and Photochemical and Radiation Sciences, in which group members perform research on the fundamental processes in biological solar energy conversion. The Molecular Processes division consists of Chemical Energy, which is focused on catalysis, and Chemical Separations and Analysis, which is focused on analytical applications. Current projects in the Chemical Energy area include chemical kinetics and reactivity of transition metal complexes, new synthetic routes to inorganic catalytic materials using organometallic precursors and molecular "stepping stones", spectroscopic and kinetic characterization of metal oxide catalysts, spectroscopic and phenomenological studies of catalysts and advanced materials, and organometallic complexes in homogeneous catalysis. Chemical Separations and Analysis projects are in the areas of analytical separations, analytical spectroscopy, lasers in analytical chemistry, chemical analysis at liquid-solid interfaces, and metal hydride batteries.

Chemical physicists at JILA probe the structure and dynamics of ions, free radicals, cluster ions, and molecules; seek to understand the quantum mechanical behavior of chemical reactions; study the process of solvation; and investigate single entities such as quantum dots. Experimental chemical physicists use a variety of laser-based techniques to better understand hydrogen bonding, electron transfer, the formation and dissolution of chemical bonds, chemical reactions, and the formation of nanoparticles. Theoretical physicists create simulations of the molecular processes probed in these experiments to both explain results and guide future investigations. The goals of chemical physics research at JILA include understanding chemical structures and reactions at the quantum mechanical level, elucidating the structure and reactivity of gas phase ions, and discovering new approaches to explaining chemical physics.

In April 2005, Chemistry Division created a new group, Chemical Sciences and Engineering (C-CSE), from the merging of Analytical Chemical Sciences (C-ACS) and Applied Chemical Technology (C-ACT). This new group brings together strength in analytical sciences and in applied chemistry and adds an explicit component of chemical engineering. Chemical Sciences and Engineering (CSE) applies its diverse expertise in chemical sciences, instrument development, and engineering to support stockpile stewardship and federal sponsors in defense, homeland security, intelligence and energy. C-CSE provides high quality chemical analysis, materials chemistry and characterization, high-pressure research, chem-bio threat reduction, and organic synthesis. The analytical services department provides legally defensible analytical data on a wide variety of sample types and constituents. The group is accredited by the American Industrial Hygiene Association.

Brown has vigorous programs in organic, inorganic, physical, and bio-chemistry as well as in related areas. Within the broad field of organic chemistry, there are research groups pursuing the total synthesis and the biosynthesis of natural products, the development of new synthetic methodology, the application and mechanisms of organometallic reactions, the intricacies of biochemical reaction mechanisms, and the dynamics of photochemical and free radical reactions. The research in inorganic and physical-inorganic chemistry spans the gamut from inorganic glasses, bioinorganic polymers and metalloenzyme models to work with multimetallic molecules, electrochemistry, and models for hydrodesulfurization. Research in biochemistry includes studies of enzyme mechanisms; the relationship between DNA sequence, conformation, and biological properties; the insertion of non-natural amino acids into proteins; and the in vivo NMR of biological tissues, organs, and organisms. Finally, physical chemistry and chemical physics are represented by theoretical and experimental programs focusing on surfaces, clusters, and liquids as well as on the development of state-of-the-art spectroscopic and ultrafast-electron-diffraction techniques.