Tom Guarr, Anthony Porath and Andrew Rajewski traveled to Dallas to present two posters at the Electrochemical Society conference.  They ran into a former intern, Nora Shaheen, who is currently completing her PhD at Case Western.

Here is a link to the TEDx talk that Tom Guarr recently performed.  Give it a listen to hear about the future of energy storage.  We are developing batteries that convert stored chemical energy into electrical energy for applications that can range from large utilities to single family dwellings.

http://Energy Storage: The Key to Clean, Reliable Electricity for Everyone | Tom Guarr | TEDxMacatawa

Some of the members of our lab are attending the American Chemical Society Great Lakes Regional meeting in Lisle, Il.

Anthony Porath is presenting “Multi-electron covalently linked donor/acceptor sytems for organic redox flow batteries”

Andrew Rajewski is presenting “Alkyl-linked heterocyclic donor / imide acceptor systems for symmetric nonaqueous redox flow battery applications”

Tom, Anthony and Andy also had the pleasure of meeting Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry…

Senator Gary Peters visited Michigan State University Bioeconomy Institute and toured our lab on Monday, February 18, 2019.  We appreciate his interest in next generation redox flow batteries and lithium battery additives to prevent overcharging.

We are very happy to welcome Kassia Symstad to our lab.  She actually joined us in November 2018 and I am very late in updating our website.  Kassia is a University of Chicago grad with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry.  She plans to continue her education next year and we are excited about her pending electrochemical contributions to the OESL.

OESLab wishes you Happy Holidays and all the best for 2019!!!!

Also Congratulations to the 2018 Reindeer Games Champions, Amber Dood and Jason Gillmore!

Check it out…

https://www.crainsdetroit.com/technology/jolt-energy-gets-funding-research-support-battery-technology

The Americas International Meeting on Electrochemistry and Solid State Science was held in Cancun this year.  Dr Tom Guarr and Shane Mann from the OESLab attended with Dr Adina Dumitrascu and Dr Dan Henton from the Midland St. Andrews lab.  Shane and Adina presented posters. 

We have been and will be going through many personnel changes in the near past and the near future.  Andy Rajewski is the second Alma College Chemistry graduate to join the group recently.  We are happy to have you Andy, and we welcome you to OESL and MSU!

Nora is a graduate of (the) Ohio State University.  Yes, I know, but we still let her in the building.  She is our third female Chemical Engineer intern this summer!

Characterization and degradation studies of redox-active organic heterocycles

Nora Shaheen, Nick Mortimer, Shane Mann, and Dr. Thomas Guarr

Protecting batteries from overcharging is critical to prolonging the battery lifetime and preventing dangerous thermal runaway events. Redox shuttles are electrolyte additives that reduce the risk of such events, and therefore help make batteries safer for use. While a myriad of redox shuttles exist, this study focuses predominantly on 9-methyl-3,6-di(t-butyl)carbazole, and 10-methyl-3,7-di(t-butyl)phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide. These heterocycles have shown to be efficient redox shuttles, but further studies into 1) solubility in the desired electrolyte, 2) mass transfer characteristics and limitations, and 3) stability under normal use conditions are necessary. Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE) was used to study the diffusion coefficients of phenothiazine-5,5-dioxides with various N-substituents. Ion Trap Mass Spectrometry (MS) was used to study the gas-phase fragmentation patterns of deuterium-labeled derivatives of these compounds. Lastly, the chemical stability of oxidized 10-methyl-3,7-di(t-butyl)phenothiazine-5,5-dioxide was examined using UV-Vis. The compound was oxidized using bulk electrolysis and through chemical oxidation; preliminary data indicates there are minimal changes in the optical spectrum over time. Further studies are necessary to determine the long-term stability of the oxidized material.

Nora is attending Chemical Engineering graduate school at Case Western Reserve University this fall.  We wish her the best and we know she will be amazing.