Level of Education of Students Involved

Undergraduate

Faculty Sponsor

Jennifer Holt

College

College of Arts & Sciences (CAS)

Discipline(s)

Chemistry/materials

ORCID Identifier(s)

0009-0007-3831-6245

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 4-24-2025

Abstract

Zeolites are a class of materials that are composed of oxygen, silicon, and aluminum with channels embedded in the crystalline structure. Zeolites have many applications, some of which include water purification, biomass conversion, or as molecular sieves. The zeolite’s crystal structure allows them to act as a host for smaller guest molecules without chemical bonding between the host and guest molecules. An example of a guest dye molecule is Brooker’s Merocyanine. Brooker’s Merocyanine is zwitterionic, where there are opposite charges on each end, and is a unique property that could be used to enhance the dye organization within the channel. By combining the host zeolite with the guest molecule Brooker’s Merocyanine, the dye is expected to go into the zeolite channels by a cation exchange process, based on previous work. This project focused on a zeolite known as Mordenite, chosen due to this lab's previous work with other similar zeolites studied with Brooker’s Merocyanine that included LTL and ZSM-5. The purpose of this project was to optimize the combination of the Mordenite and Brooker’s Merocyanine. We used UV-Visible spectroscopy to confirm the dye is interacting with the zeolite. Dye loading Mordenite was most successful when refluxing the sample in acidic aqueous dye solution in the dark overnight with stirring. Through these experiments, we found that Mordenite can interact with Brooker’s Merocyanine more than LTL or ZSM-5.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

I like chemistry and crystal research. I am a junior ACS Chemistry major who is presenting on long-term research that I have been involved with since freshman year

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