Guest Speaker – Analytical (CHEM 741) – April 17,2023

Bio
Dr. Yan received her Ph.D. in Chemistry under the mentorship of Professor R. Graham Cooks at Purdue University in 2015. She then joined Professor Richard N. Zare’s group at Stanford University as a postdoctoral researcher. She joined Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor in 2018. Her research group develops microdroplet reactions and applies them to address the deficiencies in lipid structural analysis and to accelerate the discovery of transition metal catalysis. Dr. Yan has received an NSF CAREER award, NIH MIRA award, American Society for Mass Spectrometry Research Award, and Montague Center for Teaching Excellence Scholar Award.

Abstract
Microdroplet chemistry has received increasing attention for accelerated reactions at the air/solution interface in recent years. However, a large and significant category of reactions not demonstrated in microdroplets is the electrochemical reaction. This talk will discuss our progress toward microdroplet electrochemical strategies which include (i) a voltage-controlled interfacial microreactor that allows acceleration of electrochemical reactions for the first time; (ii) novel interfacial electrochemical reactions that address various long-standing isomeric problems in lipid isomer analysis; (iii) novel mass spectrometry screening platform that uses picomole-scale anodic corrosion of transition metal electrodes (e.g., Pd) to enable the rapid discovery of transition metal catalysis.