Jack Haggett
  • Music
  • Class of 2018
  • Palatine, IL

Palatine student presents research at seventh annual Celebration of Scholars event

2017 May 2

Carthage College held the seventh annual Celebration of Scholars event on Friday, April 28, 2017. Celebration of Scholars is a poster exhibition that features original research, scholarship, and creative work completed by Carthage students.

Jack Haggett of Palatine presented "Surfactants with Reversible Linkers for Micelle-Facilitated Organic Synthesis" at the event.

This is the project's abstract:

"Organic solvents contribute to 85% or more of the hazardous waste generated in the chemical industry, demonstrating the need to identify mechanisms of reducing organic solvent use in organic reactions. Alternatives such as supercritical fluids, ionic liquids, water, and using solvent-free conditions are in development and use. Water is an excellent alternative as it is low in energy costs, can be sustainably generated and is abundant. Unfortunately, water is often unsuitable for many organic reactions as most organic reactants and reagents are water insoluble. However, recent work demonstrated aqueous micellar solutions are capable of conducting organic reactions under aqueous conditions. Micelles facilitate organic reactions in aqueous conditions as the water-insoluble organic material is entropically driven into the micelle interior, thus providing a medium for the reaction. Micelles have even been shown to conduct some reactions more efficiently and at room temperature, thus lowering the energy costs involved in these organic reactions. We are focused on designing and synthesizing a novel surfactant which self-aggregates into micelles capable of immobilizing starting materials or catalysts to the interior of the micelle through an alkene functional group. We report progress on the synthesis of an alkene-terminating steroidal-PEG surfactant synthesized from lithocholic acid in five steps, where the alkene can reversibly attach catalysts and reactants. The ? steroid was synthesized through an oxidation-decarboxylation pathway with appropriate protection/deprotection steps. The PEG headgroup installation was originally attempted through a Fischer esterification strategy, but after encountered challenges, we are currently focused on a DCC coupling pathway."