Dr. Mary Robert Garrett

Dr. Mary Robert Garrett and her research team investigated the sustainable production of electron-deficient tetracenes(1), four-ringed, polyaromatic compounds, which have demonstrated promise as thermoelectric (TE) materials. This project examined an alternative approach to tetracenes (Scheme 1, below) that would lend itself to electron-deficient substrates in addition to electron-rich, and neutral substrates. Dr. Garret and her team successfully synthesized compound 5 from compound 2 via the three reported steps for an electron-rich substrate (R = CH3), electron-neutral substrate (R = H), and an electron-deficient substrate (R = F). The neutral product was synthesized in 20% yield, the electron-rich product in 49% yield and the electron-deficient product in 22% yield. As a result of this successful work, a new course has been developed for the Spring 2020 semester to continue this project in hopes of completing the fourth and final step realizing the only synthesis of electron-deficient substrates that also applies to electron-rich and neutral compounds. Upon that successful completion, the potential of these compounds to control electron flow in applications such as solar panels will be explored.

Posted by Berea College Summer Research 2019

Dr. Ron Rosen

This summer, Berea College students conducted research at Berea College under the mentorship of Dr. Ron Rosen. The research that they performed was about factors that might lead to the observed lower intensities of infection of the Leuceruthrus micropteri, compared to Proterometra macrostoma, in their centrarchid fish definitive hosts. They collected samples at North Elkhorn creek, and then brought them back to the lab to experiment. When the cercaria freshly emerged, they put them in cold-blooded saline of different pH. The cercariae L. micropteri did not emerge from without pepsin in 2.0 and 2.5 pH. These results may partly explain the lower intensities of infection observed in centrarchid fish with L. micropteri when compared to P. macrostoma.

The research team in the field!

Posted by Berea College Summer Research 2019