Alex Wheeler

Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Scudder, Paul

Area of Concentration

Chemistry

Abstract

In the United States alone there are a total of 43,180 impaired bodies of water across each of the 50 states that are completely unusable for drinking purposes. A problem that plagues many of these freshwater sources is pollution; most namely, the pollutants consists of run-off containing complex organic compounds. Current methods for dealing with wastewater treatment involve ozonolysis as well as chlorinolysis, which rely heavily on harmful chemicals that sometimes produce more toxic materials than those they act upon. To solve problems such as these, many scientists have dedicated themselves to the philosophy of green chemistry in order to reduce the environmental footprint left by the usage of chemicals. One such scientist is Dr. Terrence Collins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, who became the first to synthesize a Tetraamido Macrocyclic Ligand (TAML). TAMLs take the concept used by living organisms for dealing with organic compounds which involves Cytochrome P450 activating an oxygen species using iron in enzymes. The TAML acts like a similar mechanism by using oxygen to activate complex organic pollutants, thereby generating hydrogen peroxide followed by an oxidative degradation of itself producing non-harmful byproducts. Although, Dr. Collins was the first to synthesize a TAML, he was not the only one to act upon this idea. Others such as Eric Andreansky of New College of Florida worked on a similar ligand to that of Dr. Collins, but was less recognized. The TAML is not without its flaws; unfortunately, it optimally works in water that has a pH ranging from 9 to 10. In order to improve on the current TAML, new routes for synthesizing more optimal TAML’s must be conceived. This thesis details attempts to produce an optimal TAML through six different routes each of which contains novel steps that would theoretically produce a more proficient TAML.

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