Department of Chemistry – UNC Chapel Hill Chemistry Department

Department News

Scientists Harness One of Nature’s Strange Quantum Properties—Spin—for Faster Electronics

UNC and Purdue scientists designed a special material that can carry spin currents over long distances without the need for chemical doping or unstable components.

Chemists Use Light and Cobalt to Make Greener, Cheaper Industrial Chemicals

UNC chemists developed a new method to produce esters and carboxylic acids using visible light and a cheap, earth-abundant metal catalyst: cobalt.

From UNC to Eastman’s R&D Leader: How a Chemist’s Humanity Became His Greatest Strength

Chris Killian's story is about the quiet and confident clarity that he has gained from overcoming a serious illness and getting a second chance at living a full life.

Fellowship Boosts UNC Ph.D. Student’s Research on Toxic Aerosols from Harmful Algae

First-year Ph.D. student Samantha Bell is investigating the danger of inhaling toxic air from harmful algae blooms.

From Lab Bench to Dance Floor, Courtney Johnson Leads with Creativity and Empathy

Courtney John's daily life is a blend of cutting-edge chemical research and tireless leadership in service to her department and peers.

In Redesigned Chemistry Course, Students Turn Pigments into Art Preservation Tools

In UNC Chemistry, a new kind of experiment is taking shape—one that melds the rigor of synthetic chemistry with the beauty of art conservation.

Light-Powered Technique Accelerates Synthesis of Medicinal Plant Compounds

A new light-driven method dramatically simplifies and accelerates the synthesis of stemoamide alkaloids, a class of bioactive compounds found in plants.

Study Finds Protein Stability in Cells a Complex Balance of Repulsion and Attraction

In their study, the UNC team focused on just one kind of protein called GB1, a small, well-studied globular protein often used as a model.

Research

Fluorescence shadow imaging of Hypsibius exemplaris reveals morphological differences between sucrose- and CaCl2-induced osmobiotes

Herein, an approach for discriminating between tardigrade morphological states is developed and utilized to compare sucrose- and CaCl2-induced tuns, using the model species Hypsibius exemplaris.

Architectural Editing of Polyesters and Polyurethanes via Palladium(II)-Catalyzed [3,3]-Sigmatropic Oxo-Rearrangements

Herein, we disclose a backbone rearrangement approach to tune the short-chain branching of polymers.

Reductive Dynamic and Static Excited State Quenching of a Homoleptic Ruthenium Complex Bearing Aldehyde Groups

A new homoleptic Ru polypyridyl complex bearing two aldehyde groups on each bipyridine ligand, [Ru(dab)3](PF6)2, where dab is 4,4′-dicarbaldehyde-2,2′-bipyridine, was synthesized, characterized, and utilized for iodide photo-oxidation studies.

Valence can control the nonexponential viscoelastic relaxation of multivalent reversible gels

Here, we propose a model where the relaxation of polymer gels in the dilute regime originates from elementary events in which the bonds connecting two neighboring cross-linkers all disconnect.