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Robert Ramirez
Background
I was born in Manila, Philippines and lived there
until I was 9 years old. My family and I then moved to Nigeria for a
brief 1 ˝ year stay, after which we moved to the US in 1982. I
graduated from Etiwanda High School, although I spent most of my
scholastic years at South Pasadena Elementary Schools, Junior High,
and High School. I attended Pasadena City College and received my BS
in Chemistry from Cal State LA while doing undergraduate research
with Professor Carlos Gutíerrez. I worked on my master’s thesis also
under the direction of Professor Gutíerrez on the synthesis and
conformational studies of the high-affinity iron-chelator
enterobactin. I’m a fourth-year graduate student in Professor J
Fraser Stoddart’s research group working on the noncovalent
functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with
transition-metal based cyclophanes. I am currently investigating the
optoelectronic properties and photophysics of functionalized CNTs in
collaboration with Professor George Grüner.
I love mountain biking, and spend most of my free time
either riding or tweaking my bike(s). I ride all-mountain trails, but
lately I’ve been riding downhill, from fast, smooth singletracks to
steep, rocky technical trails. I also enjoy snowboarding (as the
picture might suggest), hiking, and camping among other things.
Current
Research
I am
generally interested in supramolecular systems with well-defined
architectures that can perform a particular function. My PhD
dissertation entails the design and synthesis of transition
metal-based cyclophanes that may be used to harness the desirable
properties of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Although they have
interesting mechanical and electrical properties for future
applications in nanoscale devices, CNTs are notoriously insoluble in
most organic and aqueous solvents thus hindering their chemical
manipulation. An additional challenge is bulk CNTs are present as a
mixture of different lengths and diameters, adhered to each other to
form bundles and rope-like structures. I am investigating a series
of transition metal-based cyclophanes that can solubilize CNTs.
Since the cyclophanes can be designed to have a defined cavity, the
hypothesis is they will only self-assemble around CNTs with a
complementary diameter. This affords a stable, homogenous CNT
suspension that can provide the opportunity for further separation
into narrower size distribution. Functionalization of CNTs by the
noncovalent approach is attractive, as it does not destroy the
electrical properties of CNTs. Also, the cyclophanes can be designed
to be readily removed after chemical manipulation of the
functionalized tubes. In collaboration with Professor George
Grüner’s research group I am currently investigating the
optoelectronic properties of this material as it may serve as
potential candidate for applications in photovoltaics and solar
cells.
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