Sirena Hargrove-Leak, an assistant professor of engineering, along with Dustin “Dusty” French ’11, and Paul Schifano ’10, published “Li-Al layered double hydroxides as catalysts for the synthesis of flavanone” in Catalysis Communications.
The paper presents evidence that variations in catalyst basicity correspond to catalytic activity. The behavior may be attributed to electrically charged groups on the catalyst surface and is a significant contribution to this field of study because it supports evidence about the steps in the reaction pathway.
At the time of this study, French and Schifano were participants in the Department of Chemical Engineering Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Program at the University of South Carolina and Hargrove-Leak was a research associate receiving support from a Faculty Research and Development (FR&D) summer fellowship.
The work was done in collaboration with Jose Cortes-Concepcion, then a doctoral candidate in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of South Carolina.
Citation: D. French, P. Schifano, J. Cortes-Concepcion, S. Hargrove-Leak, Catalysis Communications 12 (2010) 92-94.