Title
- Director of Prestigious Scholarship Program
- Professor of Chemistry
Education
- Camille and Henry Dreyfus Postdoctoral Fellow, Berea College, KY (Chemistry)
- Ph.D., University of Idaho, ID (Chemistry)
- M.S., Kansas State University, KS (Chemistry)
- B.S., Western Illinois University, IL (Chemistry)
My research interests include the synthesis and characterization on new compounds as model systems for nonlinear optical materials. Previous materials studied include ruthenium organometallic salts that have potentially large hyperpolarizability properties. Current investigations include vinylferrocenyl ruthenium heterobimetallic salts as potential new materials.
Undergraduate students work on all aspects of this research project. Relevant library research and proposed project design are followed by writing applications for project funding. Synthesis of the target molecules includes organic, inorganic, and organometallic synthetic techniques. All organic solvents are properly dried and purified before use. Synthetic techniques may also involve Schlenk line and other air-sensitive methods. Purification procedures include column chromatography, extraction, distillation, recrystallization, and trituration. Characterization methods include proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometry, carbon NMR spectrometry, infrared spectrophotometry, and UV-visible spectrophotometry.
Students are presented with opportunities to present their findings at various local, state, regional, and national professional conferences and many are now co-authors on research publications.
Recent Publications
- “Quantitative Determination of Citric and Ascorbic Acid in Powdered Drink Mixes”, Sigmann, S. B. and Wheeler, D. E., J. Chem. Ed, (2004), 81(10), 1479-81.
- “Quantitative Determination of Food Dyes in Powdered Drink Mixes”, Wheeler, D. E. and Sigmann, S. B., J. Chem. Ed, (2004), 81(10), 1475-8.
- “Cp*Ru+ Complexes of Benzylideneaniline and Salicylideneaniline”, Wheeler, D. E., Baetz, N. W., Holder, G. N., Hill, S. T., Milos, S., and Luczak, K. A., Inorg. Chim. Acta, (2002), 328, 210-217.
- “To the Front of the Class”, Wheeler, D. E. J. Chem. Ed., Vol. 77, (2000) 1440.
- “Conductive polymeric films of meso-tetrakis[2.2]-para-cyclophanyl-metalloporphyrins – spectroelectrochemistry and catalytic properties”, Bennett, J. E., Burewicz, A., Wheeler, D. E., Eliezer, I., Czuchajowski, L., and Malinski, T. Inorg. Chim. Acta, (1998), 271, 167-173.
- “Organoimido and Organodi-imido Vanadium Complexes”, Wheeler, D. E., Wu, J-F., and Maatta, E. A. Polyhedron, (1998) 17, 5-6, 969-76.