Dr. Toby L. Nelson, from Oklahoma State University, will be presenting a seminar titled

“Redefining Melanin: From Eumelanin- inspired materials to structure- property relationships.”

Melanin is a unique class of natural occurring pigments found in the hair, eyes, skin and the brain of mammals. Eumelanin is the black-brown variety of Melanin and understood to be a biosynthesized heterogeneous macromolecule containing 5,6-dihydroxyindole and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxyic acid. Nature has chosen this substance with such complexity and undefined structure as the centerpiece for so many functions like coloration, radiation hardness, and neuron protector. This presentation will introduce what we call Eumelanin-inspired materials. Here, we have explored the tunability of the Eumelanin-inspired indole core for applications such as sensors, OLEDs and antimicrobials.

References:
Adhikari, S.; Hopson, R. A.; Sedai, B. R.; McFarland, F. M.; Guo, S.; Nelson, T. L. Synthesis and Characterization of Eumelanin-Inspired Poly(indolyenearylenevinylene)s and Poly(indolyenearyleneethynylene)s J. Polym. Sci. A Polym. Chem., 2017, 55, 457-463.
Selvaraju, S.; Adhikari, S.; Hopson, R. A.; Dai, S.; Rheingold, A. L.; Borunda, M. F.; Nelson, T. L. Effects of Structural Variations on the Optical and Electronic Properties of Eumelanin-Inspired Small Molecules J. Mater. Chem. C. 2016, 4, 3995 – 3999. This article is part of themed collection: Emerging Investigators 2016: Novel design strategies for new functional materials.
Selvaraju, S.; Sachinthani, K. A. N.; Hopson, R. A.; McFarland, F. M.; Guo, S.; Rheingold, A. L.; Nelson, T. L. Eumelanin-inspired core derived from vanillin: A new building block for organic semiconductors, Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 2957–2959.

Host: Silas Blackstock