Assistant Professor of Chemistry Eli Fahrenkrug has been awarded a $55,获得美国化学会石油研究基金(ACS PRF)的1万美元项目资助, 题目为“双电层内的选择性多晶晶化”." The grant, part of the ACS PRF's Undergraduate New Investigator program, will support three undergraduate research fellowships each summer for the next three summers; two fellowships will be supported by ACS PRF and one will be supported by Colorado College.
Of all drugs that are produced, 超过60%的药物以压缩药丸或片剂形式口服. 这些药物中有一半以上存在于一种以上的晶体结构中. "This means that the molecules comprising the crystal (i.e. the pill) are unchanged, 但是它们在空间中的排列方式不同——这种现象被称为多态性. 晶体结构的简单改变往往会使治疗药物完全无效," Fahrenkrug says. “控制多态性是出了名的反复无常，在化学和物理领域仍然是一个突出的挑战."
法伦克鲁格的项目开发了一种在巨大电场中选择性结晶多晶晶的新策略. 他解释说，通过所谓的“键”将原子结合在一起的电子通常不均匀地分布在分子中. 这意味着分子可以表现得像微小的磁铁，并与外部场相互作用.
“我们将这些分子置于闪电中所见的电场中(每米10亿伏特)，从而诱导排列并导致晶体中所需的包装排列," says Fahrenkrug. “这里的主要技术挑战是，在远距离上施加电压会导致放电和分子本身的破坏——类似于雷击. To overcome this, 我们设计了一种新的定制静电反应器，允许在纳米尺度上可控地应用电场——大约10,000 times thinner than a hair - which avoids the problem."
制药工业对多晶型预测和控制有相当大的经济和科学兴趣，以避免剂量, processing, and patent problems, 因此，药品制造商有明确和确定的机制来选择性地生产特定的多晶相是至关重要的. 因为大量的石油化工资源被用于药物开发, 这个项目深深植根于石油化学的更普遍的进步.
Additionally, Fahrenkrug recently published two articles, both in American Chemical Society publications, and was featured in an Office of Sustainability interview titled 将权力与公平融入分析化学课程.
The first of his articles, "液态金属纳米液滴在水中合成锗纳米线的原位透射电镜测量," published in ACS Nano, 是华伦克鲁格和密歇根大学研究人员合作的结果吗. 他解释说，半导体材料构成了包括太阳能电池在内的所有现代能源材料的基础, electronics, 还有电池——但它们的生产是巨大的能源密集型，给下游消费者带来了额外的费用.
"Several years ago, 我们开创了一种新的颠覆性技术，可以在室温下直接在水中生产这些材料，这种技术被称为“电化学液-液-固生长”。. 关键的创新是使用液态金属电极作为这些材料结晶的溶剂.华伦克鲁格把它比作制作冰糖，说这是一个类似的过程. “我们使用电化学方法在一段时间后将原子溶解到液态金属中, 原子结合成晶体，像冰糖一样从液态金属表面冒出来."
这篇文章捕捉了几年来研究这种新的晶体生长过程的详细机制的工作, Fahrenkrug says. “我们使用透射电子显微镜(TEM)在原子水平上实时观察晶体生长. The work provides detailed insight into the mechanism, which can later be exploited for better control of the process."
The second article, "The Flint, 以密西根水危机为例，在分析化学课程中引入公平与权力的概念," published in the Journal of Chemical Education, 是华伦克鲁格和保罗·巴克利几年合作的结果吗, former director of Colorado College's Butler Center. 法伦克鲁格说，他们开发了一个新的教学框架，通过权力的视角来教授技术分析化学的内容, equity, racism, and environmental justice. The complex nature of the Flint, Michigan, 水危机为开发模块化案例研究提供了机会，该案例研究涉及导致危机的权力不平等的潜在方面, as well as the key chemical concepts, laboratory analysis techniques, chemical modeling, and scientific translation. 华伦克鲁格说，案例研究的六个互补模块包括:
- A guided discussion of water, power, and privilege in Flint
- 课堂引导探究练习，介绍水危机的关键化学概念
- A hypothesis-driven laboratory analysis of real Flint waters
- A statistical data validation exercise
- An introduction to software-based chemical equilibrium modeling
- Multiple modes of scientific translation to nonscientists.
学生们被要求了解这个问题的历史和政治, the complex chemistry at its center, and ultimately, 将这种复杂性传达给面临最大风险的利益相关者的挑战.
Coincidentally, 今年的科罗拉多大学公共读物是莫娜·汉娜-阿提莎的《赌博正规的十大网站》, the story of how Hanna-Attisha, alongside a team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders, discovered that the children of Flint, Michigan, were being exposed to lead in their tap water. Hanna-Attisha also was CC's First Mondays speaker on Sept. 21.