Wenjie Fan

Mentor: Prof. Ben Lear & Prof. John Mauro

• Design and synthesize a new type of bismuth-doped bioactive glass aiming to cure open wounds.
• Test the photothermal activity of the bismuth NP-doped bioactive glass.

• Develop and conduct AP Chemistry lessons for high school senior students remotely.
• Help students prepare for upcoming AP Chemistry exams by providing practice tests and quizzes.
• Provide one-on-one support for homework assignments, projects, or essays.

CHEM 110 & 111 (General Chemistry Lecture & Lab)

• Teach weekly recitation and lab sessions.
• Develop guides and course materials to reinforce lecture information and help students learn.
• Grade student assignments and exams, providing feedback on their performance.
• Lead review sessions prior to major exams or assignments' due dates.

CHEM 211 (Organic Chemistry Lab) Instrument Room Assistant

• Teach students how to use IR and NMR properly (Sample loading, parameter adjusting, etc)
• Solve technical problems with instruments.
• Teach students how to correctly interpret IR and NMR spectrum and guide them in writing lab reports.

Thesis: A new reductive electrophotocatalysis: new aryl diimide catalyst unlocks challenging aryl halides for radical coupling

Mentor: Prof. Philip Milner

• Designed a new setup for the new catalytic strategy that merges the power of light and electricity to obtain a super-reducing radical anion of NTCDA-TPAPA
• Carried out the electrophotocatalysis (borodechlorination) with various aryl halide substrates with very high reduction potentials under mild reaction conditions.
• Improved the yield of the target products and detected the best reaction condition.
• Designed future experiments, including the lifespan of excited NTCDA-TPAPA radical anions by using a transient absorption spectrometer with a femtosecond pulse.

McCarron's Water Treatment Plant Improvements-Pilot Testing

Mentor: Prof. Bill Arnold and Dr. Huan He

• Investigate water treatment alternatives to aid in the design of an upgraded water treatment plant.
• Prepare samples for solid-phase extraction.
• Carry out DBP extraction tests and SPE tests for waste water samples.
• Monitor flow rate of SPE.

Three-Phase Electrodes for Fluorous-phase Ion Transfer Voltammetry

Mentor: Prof. Phillippe Buhlmann and Dr. Blair Troudt

• Synthesize an improved fluorinated redox-active probe for the fluorous phase.
• Develop proof-of-concept experiments for the aqueous phase to the florous phase.
• Measure calibration curves and determine concentrations of fluorinated compounds in aqueous samples.
• Develop improved three-phase electrode systems to maximize signals and improve limits of detection for fluorinated ions in aqueous samples.