Jacqueline Houston,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Chemistry, CSUS
Current Research Group
Kris Pineda, Graduate Student
Victor Mendiola, Graduate student
Britainie Ault,
Graduate Student
Andrew Burton
Undergraduate Student
Former Students
Heidi Van Atta, Masters Student, Fall 2010
Nick Genovia, Undergrad Student
Corri Alexander, Undergraduate Student, Graduated Spring 2010
Joshua Flynn, Undergraduate Student, Graduated Spring 2011
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Office Hours:
Announcements:
Dr. Jacqueline Houston
Office: Sequoia 420A Phone: (916) 278-2583 email: jhouston@csus.edu
Chemistry Department phone: (916) 278-6684 Fax: (916) 278-4986
Mailing Address:
CSUS Department of Chemistry
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6057
Courses:
Chem 110 Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 110L Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 1B General Chemistry II
Chem 6A General Chemistry for Health Science
Fall 2012 Courses : Chem 1B and Chem 110/110L
Research in Inorganic Chemistry:
Research Synopsis:
One of the most challenging and pressing issues confronting our nation is the safe and cost-effective management of environmental pollutants and the remediation of hazardous waste sites. To capture aqueous hazardous waste, porous metal-oxides/hydroxides and silicates with diverse compositions, structures, and macroscopic morphologies have been used for decades. However, most metal-oxide materials are so structurally complex that reactions that take place at the solid-surface interface are not well understood. In order to enhance adsorption and exchange properties of metal-oxide materials, a molecular-level understanding of how the solid oxide surface reacts is critical.
Our research efforts focus on aqueous transition-metal chemistry of metal-oxo clusters. We establish fundamental relationships between structure and reactivity for metal-oxide materials by employing the use of aqueous Nb, Mo, W, and Rh-oxo model compounds (See Figure 1). We synthesize our transition metal clusters using traditional inorganic synthetic techniques and characterize our compounds using NMR (1H, 17O, 103Rh, 95Mo), electronic spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Once synthesized, we measure rates of ligand substitution at the metal clusters using variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy. Understanding rates of ligand substitution are particularly important since these reactions are similar to those that take place at metal-oxide remediation materials.
Figure 1. A typical metal-oxo cluster is shown on the left. Bound aqua ligands (η-OH2) and bridging oxos (μ3-O) are common structural features of metal-oxide/hydroxide surfaces. Shown on the right is a 103Rh NMR spectrum of a trinucleaur rhodium cluster.
Student Presentations:
Kris Pineda presenting at the ACS undergraduate research
symposium at CSUS, May 2010
Corri Alexandar and Nick Genovia presenting at the ACS meeting in Boston, 2010.
Heidi Van Atta after her Master's thesis defense, Fall 2010
Office: Sequoia 420A Phone: (916) 278-2583 email: jhouston@csus.edu
Chemistry Department phone: (916) 278-6684 Fax: (916) 278-4986
Mailing Address:
CSUS Department of Chemistry
6000 J Street
Sacramento, CA 95819-6057
Courses:
Chem 110 Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 110L Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 1B General Chemistry II
Chem 6A General Chemistry for Health Science
Fall 2012 Courses : Chem 1B and Chem 110/110L
Research in Inorganic Chemistry:
Research Synopsis:
One of the most challenging and pressing issues confronting our nation is the safe and cost-effective management of environmental pollutants and the remediation of hazardous waste sites. To capture aqueous hazardous waste, porous metal-oxides/hydroxides and silicates with diverse compositions, structures, and macroscopic morphologies have been used for decades. However, most metal-oxide materials are so structurally complex that reactions that take place at the solid-surface interface are not well understood. In order to enhance adsorption and exchange properties of metal-oxide materials, a molecular-level understanding of how the solid oxide surface reacts is critical.
Our research efforts focus on aqueous transition-metal chemistry of metal-oxo clusters. We establish fundamental relationships between structure and reactivity for metal-oxide materials by employing the use of aqueous Nb, Mo, W, and Rh-oxo model compounds (See Figure 1). We synthesize our transition metal clusters using traditional inorganic synthetic techniques and characterize our compounds using NMR (1H, 17O, 103Rh, 95Mo), electronic spectroscopy and infrared spectroscopy. Once synthesized, we measure rates of ligand substitution at the metal clusters using variable-temperature NMR spectroscopy. Understanding rates of ligand substitution are particularly important since these reactions are similar to those that take place at metal-oxide remediation materials.
Figure 1. A typical metal-oxo cluster is shown on the left. Bound aqua ligands (η-OH2) and bridging oxos (μ3-O) are common structural features of metal-oxide/hydroxide surfaces. Shown on the right is a 103Rh NMR spectrum of a trinucleaur rhodium cluster.
Student Presentations:
Kris Pineda presenting at the ACS undergraduate research
symposium at CSUS, May 2010
Corri Alexandar and Nick Genovia presenting at the ACS meeting in Boston, 2010.
Heidi Van Atta after her Master's thesis defense, Fall 2010
Office Hours:
TBA
Announcements: