2023 Kansas Physical Chemistry Symposium

The Kansas Physical Chemistry Symposium will be held on Saturday, November 4, 2023 from 9:58 am - 5 pm in Gray-Little Hall on the campus of the University of Kansas.

Symposium Schedule

1154 Gray-Little Hall

Session Chair:  Cindy Berrie

9:58 am - Welcome and Announcements

10:00 am - Plenary Talk: “From Thin Films to Heterogeneous Catalysts: Leveraging Surface Science Techniques to Understand Materials Growth and Performance,” Rachael Farber, University of Kansas

10:30 am - “Modeling the effect of silicon to aluminum ratio on the adsorption of water in zeolites,” Micah L. Welsch, University of Kansas

10:50 pm - “Atomic Force Microscopy Study of the Assembly Kinetics of a Model  Gold Binding Peptide,”Chris Johnson, University of Kansas

Gray-Little Atrium

11:10 am - Coffee Break

1154 Gray-Little Hall

Session Chair:  Rachael Farber

11:25 am - “Single-Molecule Fluorescence investigation of dye adsorption onto the surface of anodic aluminum oxide nanopores,” Akash Nathani, Kansas State University

11:45 am - “Energy uphill charge separation observed in Non fullerene Acceptor/Polymer Bulk Heterojunction,”Kushal Rijal, University of Kansas

12:05 pm - “Evaluating Effects of Approximations in Electronic Structure Methods for Optical Rotation Calculations,” Taylor Parsons, University of Kansas

1146 Gray-Little Hall

12:25 pm - Lunch & Poster Session I

1154 Gray-Little Hall

Session Chair:  Marco Caricato

2:00 pm - “Ion Mobility Separations and Structural Isotopic Shifts in Novel Buffer Gas Compositions,”Atena Tajaddodi, Wichita State University

2:20 pm - “A Kirkwood-Buff Derived Force Field for Aqueous Alkali and Alkaline Earth Metal Nitrates,”Farhat Khurshid, Kansas State University

2:40 pm - “Nonspecific Binding of Chaperones Increases Unfolding Rate of Misfolded RNA,” Terry Salava, Jr, Kansas State University

1146 Gray-Little Hall

3:00 pm - Coffee Break & Poster Session II

1154 Gray-Little Hall

Session Chair:  Chris Elles

4:00 pm - “Probing Solute Nanoconfinement: A Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy Study of Ethanol/Water Mixtures in Nanoporous Anodic aluminum Oxide Membranes,” Hamid Rashidi, Kansas State University

4:20 pm - “Quantifying Crystal Growth Rates in Calcite,” Cade M. Ifland, Kansas State University

4:40 pm - “Exploring the Unusual Reactivity of the Hydrated Electron with CO2,”Pauf Neupane, University of Kansas

5:00 pm - End

Posters

Poster #1: Improved ReaxFF Parameters For Simulating Nucleation And Crystal Growth In Icosahedral Boron Materials, Amin Ahmadisharaf and Jeffrey Comer, Kansas State University, Department of Anatomy and Physiology

Poster #2:  Solute Nanoconfinement in Nanoporous Anodic Aluminum Oxide Membranes: A Study of Butanol/Water Mixtures by Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy,Safoura Asadi, Hamid Rashidi, Takashi Ito, and Daniel A. Higgins, Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University

Poster #3: Uncovering the Driving Forces Controlling Ion Diffusion in Carbon Dioxide-Expanded Electrolytes, Elizabeth R. Bartlett, Ashley K. Borkowski, Christian K. Nilles, James D. Blakemore, and Ward H. Thompson, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #4:  Understanding Hydrolysis Energy on Amorphous Silica Surface, Shreyaa Brahmachari and Marco Caricato, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #5:  P-31 NMR: A Computational Analysis of Phytate Chemical Shifts, Joshua Brooks, Katie Mitchell-Koch, and Ryan Steinert, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Wichita State University

Poster #6:  Isotope Effect in Optical Rotation, Brian Faintich, Taylor Parsons, Ty Balduf, and Marco Caricato, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #7:  Determining the Optical Rotation of Molecular Crystals using Periodic Boundary Conditions, Emmanuel Forson, Taylor Parson, and Marco Caricato, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #8:  Towards Accurate Modelling Of Solute–Silica Interactions using Ab Initio-Assisted Forcefields, Sahan M. Godahewa, Thanuja Jayawardena, Ward H. Thompson, and Jeffery A. Greathouse, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #9:  An Optimized Force Field for Silica-Water Interfaces, Thanuja Jayawardena, Sahan M. Godahewa, Ward H. Thompson, and Jeffery A. Greathouse,Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #10:  Ultrafast Solution-Phase Norrish Photochemistry of Heterocyclic Cyclobutanones: Effect of 3-Oxo, 3-Aza, and 3-Thio Substitutions, Daniel R. Johnson, Manvendra Singh, Zarko Boskovic, and Christopher G. Elles, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #11: Carbohydrate-Modified, Surfactant-Based Vesicles for Evaluation of Multivalent Lectin Binding and Inhibition, Doug English and David Marck, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Wichita State University

Poster #12:  Characterization of Neutral Sulfur Reactions at Low Temperatures: An Investigation of Europa’s Subsurface Ice Composition, Rory Mata, Doug English, Katie Mitchell-Koch,Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Wichita State University

Poster #13:  Effects of Surface Orientations of BEA zeolite on Sorption of PFBS and PFOS, Joyce Nguyen and Brian Laird,Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #14: Micro Fabry-Perot Cavity for Chemical Characterization of Nanoscale Particles, Girish Paudyal and Hoang Nguyen, Department of Chemistry, Washburn University

Poster #15:  Selective Ethanol Dehydrogenation over Oxide-Supported Cu Nano-Islands, Lindsey N. Penland, Theresa Read, Darya M. Moiny, Jenyn Pinkley, and Rachael G. Farber, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #16:  Insights into How Chaperone Net Charge and Sequence Pattering Influence Nucleic Acid Folding, Gabrielle M. Perkins, Parnian Arafi ,and Erik D. Holmstrom, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas

Poster #17:  Probing the Effect of Osmolytes in Aqueous Solutions through Activation Energies, Anjali Radhakrishnan, Ashley K. Borkowski, and Ward H. Thompson, Department of Chemistry, University of Kansas

Poster #18:  Behavior of Silver Nanowire Dimers within a Static Electric Field, D. S. N. D. Samarasinghe and Christine M. Aikens,Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University

Poster #19:  Insights into the Isoenergetic Monomeric Structures of the Hepatitis C Virus 3'X RNA, Parker D. Sperstad and Erik D. Holmstrom, Department of Molecular Biosciences, University of Kansas

Poster #20:  Expanding Differential Ion Mobility Separations into the MegaDalton Range, Tobias P. Worner, Hayden A. Thurman, Alexander A. Makarov, and Alexandre A. Shvartsburg, Department of Chemistry, Wichita State University

Poster #21:  Implementation of Energy and Gradient for the TDDFT-Approximate Auxiliary Function (aas) Method, Yuchen Wang and Christine M. Aikens, Department of Chemistry, Kansas State University