(A complete list of faculty research interests can be found here on the Chemistry & Biochemistry Department website.)
Analytical Chemistry: Electrochemistry, infrared spectroscopy, electrochemical interfaces and development of in situ techniques. (1) Electrocatalysis and energy storage. (2) Electrochemistry under nanoconfined spaces. (3) Using in situ techniques to reveal reaction mechanisms in energy conversion and energy storage.
Biochemistry, Chemical Biology, and Organic Chemistry: Synthesis and/or development of chemical tools to study (bio)chemistry that is important to human health at the subcellular and tissue level using live human cell cultures and fluorescent microscopy approaches.
Inorganic Chemistry: Organic and inorganic materials for photovoltaics; Near-infrared emitting materials for biosensing; Ordered inorganic nanostructures; Density functional theory calculation; Crystallography; Photocatalysts for water splitting, Porphyrin chemistry.
Physical Chemistry: Computational screening of materials exhibiting enhanced catalytic activity and selectivity; Predicting reaction kinetics and thermodynamics of molecular transformations; Computational design of materials for wastewater treatment.
Biochemistry: Disease relevant zinc metalloenzyme biochemistry, Glutamate Carboxypeptidase II; Mechanisms of bacterial carbon compound metabolism and oligotrophic adaptations; Membrane protein biochemistry and synthetic biology.
Inorganic Chemistry: Supramolecular self-assembly: synthesis and characterization of mechanically interlocked molecules; synthesis and characterization of bio-inspired metal complexes as models for the active sites of metalloproteins.
Organic Chemistry: Synthesis of organic materials; New methodology for organic synthesis via phosphonates; Development of New Experiments for Organic Lab.
Organic Chemistry: Organic synthesis of basket-shaped molecular containers based on Resorcin[4]arene and calix[4]arene; Synthesis of tweezer-shaped organic molecules; Molecular recognition studies upon the synthesized molecular hosts.
(No longer accepting research students)
Environmental Chemistry: Trace level analysis and the study of reactions and processes relevant to chemical contaminant migration and site remediation.
Physical Chemistry: Use of NMR spectroscopy to study biological systems: protein structure in spider silks and phosphorus metabolites in freeze-tolerant animals.
Inorganic Chemistry: The design and use of biomimetic catalysts (molecules that mimic enzyme behavior) to carry out "green" oxidation reactions using atmospheric oxygen.
Eastern Illinois University
Physical Science, Rm 3440
600 Lincoln Avenue
Charleston, IL 61920
(217) 581-5422
rsemeniuc@eiu.edu