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Richard E. Sykora
Assistant Professor of Chemistry
(251)460-7422
rsykora@jaguar1.usouthal.edu
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My main area of research is in synthetic inorganic chemistry. My particular interests in this field are in the areas of structural chemistry of f-element compounds. There are two main groups of f-elements, the lanthanides and the actinides. All of the actinides are radioactive and many of them are quite rare, therefore it is quite challenging to conduct research using these elements. On the contrary, all of the lanthanide elements (except Pm) have stable isotopes and are relatively plentiful in nature. For these reasons we work primarily on studies involving the lanthanide elements, although we presently also have the licensing and capabilities to work with one actinide, Uranium. |
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| One active area of research in my lab is the construction of functional f-element coordination polymers. A common impediment in lanthanide ion systems is that direct absorption of the f−f excited states is very inefficient. However, light harvesting ligands can be used to enhance the emission from the metal cation site. Ligands used for such applications usually have strong absorbance in the UV or visible regions and transfer their excited energy to the acceptor species (Ln cation). Chromophoric ligands that photosensitize lanthanide ion luminescence are of intense current interest. Such complexes are used in technological applications such as fluoroimmunoassays, cellular imaging, chemosensors, optical communications, and optoelectronic devices. A number of compounds have been studied that illustrate photosensitization of various f-elements. One of our main research aims is to prepare compounds that contain multiple donor groups for lanthanide sensitization. |
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| Success in this area was recently reported by us in a communication in Inorganic Chemistry (Inorg. Chem. 2008, 47, 1895-1897). The one-dimensional, polymeric compound (C15H11N3)Eu(H2O)2(NO3)(Pt(CN)4)·CH3CN (shown below) has been shown to display an efficient donor-acceptor intramolecular energy transfer (IET) process where multiple ligand donors, terpyridine (C15H11N3) and tetracyanoplatinate (Pt(CN)42−), transfer energy to the Eu(III) acceptor. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction was used to investigate the structural features of this compound in order to help understand the observed IET process. The excitation spectrum collected using one of the Eu(III) emission lines provides evidence for the energy transfer processes. |
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