We are looking for an organic synthetic chemist as a postdoctoral fellow at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington DC. We are interested in studying how molecules interact with each other, how IR light interacts with them and designing materials to maximize these interactions for practical applications to help detect and protect against hazardous chemistries. 

Experience in multi-step synthesis of small molecules is desired. Our sorbent material designs typically emphasize, but are not limited to, strong hydrogen-bond (HB) structural features, to complement HB basicities often exhibited in hazardous chemistries. Strong molecular interactions between hazardous chemicals and a sorbent can also lead to significant changes in observed IR spectra, providing paths for chemical detection.  

Application areas for sorbents include analytical/detection and protection applications. The analytical/detection areas of interest include absorbents for preconcentrator (collection), GC stationary phases (separation) and transduction (sensing).  Adsorbent materials are also of interest for preconcentrator and protection (gas mask filters) applications. For adsorbent designs we are interested in grafting small molecule sorbents into rigid inorganic scaffold structures to provide strong molecular binding structures with useful mass transfer properties.

In parallel to the synthetic work we have analytical and physical science laboratories which are used to characterize and test the properties of new materials and associated devices which are coated with the sorbents. We are also involved in developing a range of microfabricated gas analyzer devices which offer applied transition paths for different sorbents.

Group Facilities: 

Synthesis lab: A laboratory with four 6-foot fume hoods is dedicated to our synthetic work. The following instruments are available for routine synthesis laboratory procedures: Glove box, Buchi Reveleris automated flash chromatography system, Biotage microwave reactor,

Analytical/Physical Science labs: Custom bubbler vapor generator, arrayed QCM system, Agilent GCMS, Bruker Vertex V80 and a Tensor FTIR systems, Bruker MALDI, Bruker 400 MHz NMR, Agilent UV-Vis, SMS Inverse GC, Visible/IR/Raman microscopes.

 

key words

Organic synthesis; Molecular interactions; IR Spectroscopy; Absorbent materials; Adsorbent materials; Hydrogen-bonding; Solvation equations; Chemical Sensing;

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral applicants