Faculty Sponsor

Jennifer Holt

College

Arts and Sciences

Discipline(s)

Chemistry

ORCID Identifier(s)

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9913-6909

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Symposium Date

Spring 5-14-2020

Abstract

Host-guest materials are created when a guest dye molecule enters the channels within the zeolite host, which can be useful to understand how molecules act in a constrained environment. In the study of Zeolite L, it was previously unclear if Brooker’s merocyanine was able to go into the channels of Zeolite L. The purpose of this research was to determine if thionine dye could be inserted into the zeolite crystal channels and how much dye would be adsorbed. Thionine was chosen as a guest dye to compare synthesized zeolite with known literature behavior. Zeolite L was synthesized in the lab, and the crystal structure was confirmed with XRD. Then, a zeolite suspension was added to a 2.5 x 10-5 M aqueous thionine solution and heated to boiling until the solution turned from purple to blue. The color change indicated that the dye molecules entered the channels of the zeolite, which lead to three conclusions. First, the synthesized Zeolite L channels could incorporate dye molecules, which followed the literature example. This project also proved to be a faster way of confirming that the crystal was correct versus examining the crystal in the XRD. Lastly, the amount of dye that entered the zeolite channels was measured and compared to previous studies.

Biographical Information about Author(s)

Alyssa is a senior at Valparaiso University, double majoring in chemistry and biology, pursuing pre-med. This research has interested her to develop and apply skills used in studying crystals.

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