Research Interests

My research was on corannulene and its importance as a fairly new type of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). We performed UV/Vis, Infrared, and Raman Spectroscopies on corannulene to determine its properties and potential uses. We also looked at the importance of PAHs in the evolving field of nanotechnology. We hoped to find simple and efficient ways to purify corannulene in preparation for these spectroscopies, to be eventually used in a classroom laboratory experiment. I also researched the development of science in the Enlightenment with the goal of comparing and contrasting it to science today, using nanotechnology as an example. Using the Enlightenment science as the "before" picture, and nanotechnology as the "after" picture, I hoped to show the connection between what we are doing today and what our ancestors did two to three hundred years ago. I specifically looked at how science changed from a movement dominated by sentimentalism, aimed at connecting and understanding human beings, and being something that even the relatively non-educated man could understand to the highly specialized, complex modern field. My research on corannulene and PAHs was used as an example of current research of today and as an example of the important role nanotechnology could play in our society.

Publications

E. R. Frey, A. Sygula, N. I. Hammer, “Particle in a Disk: A Spectroscopic and Computational Laboratory Exercise Studying the Nanomolecular Building Block Corannulene,” Journal of Chemical Education, 91, 2186-2190 (2014). DOI: 10.1021/ed4005062

Presentations

Career Goals