Anne McNeil

Last updated
Anne J. McNeil
Born (1977-06-17) June 17, 1977 (age 46)
Buffalo, New York, U.S.
Alma mater College of William & Mary, Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Scientific career
Fields Chemistry
Institutions University of Michigan, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Doctoral advisor David Collum
Other academic advisors Timothy M. Swager
Website mcneilgroup.chem.lsa.umich.edu

Anne J. McNeil (born June 17, 1977) is an American chemist who currently works at the University of Michigan, [1] where she holds the position of Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering. In 2017, McNeil was named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). [2]

Contents

Biography

McNeil is from Buffalo, New York. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1999 with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. Her graduate work was with Dave Collum at Cornell University, studying the aggregation kinetics and chemistry of lithium amides and lithium enolates. After earning her PhD in chemistry in 2005, McNeil was a post-doc with Timothy M. Swager at MIT from 2005 to 2007, studying conjugated polymers. [3]

She joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2007 as an assistant professor of Chemistry and Macromolecular Science and Engineering. She became an Arthur F. Thurnau professor in September 2013, and a professor for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in 2014. [3]

Scientific career

McNeil's lab at the University of Michigan is known for providing mechanistic understanding to the catalyst transfer polymerization process, helping to show that the likely intermediate is a catalyst-polymer π-complex, [4] but the lab has a diverse focus.

For her work on conjugated polymers, there has been considerable focus on expanding the use of catalyst transfer polymerization to make polymers of novel or hard-to-reach architectures (such as conjugated gradient copolymers [5] or insulating-conducting block copolymers [6] ) and for studying the properties of new conjugated polymers [7] or new blends of known polymers in solar cells to improve their performance. [8]

Another focus has been on molecular gelation; McNeil has published molecular gels as sensors of many harmful or hard to detect compounds. This is with the underlying assumption that it is easier to determine if a gel has formed (since it will go from a flowing solution to a gel that resists flow) rather than alternatives, such as if a solution has changed color (which can be difficult to discern if the analyte is strongly colored). McNeil's lab has produced gel-based sensors for mercury ions, [9] nitrite ions, [10] explosives, [11] enzymes, [12] and lead ions, [13] which gel when the analyte is present. Many of the gels outperform current sensors for the same materials in sensitivity and in accuracy.

Awards

McNeil was one of the first class of Beckman Scholars, receiving an award from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation in 1998. [14] McNeil was also selected for a Beckman Young Investigators Award in 2009. [15]

Related Research Articles

In polymer chemistry, living polymerization is a form of chain growth polymerization where the ability of a growing polymer chain to terminate has been removed. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways. Chain termination and chain transfer reactions are absent and the rate of chain initiation is also much larger than the rate of chain propagation. The result is that the polymer chains grow at a more constant rate than seen in traditional chain polymerization and their lengths remain very similar. Living polymerization is a popular method for synthesizing block copolymers since the polymer can be synthesized in stages, each stage containing a different monomer. Additional advantages are predetermined molar mass and control over end-groups.

Thiophene is a heterocyclic compound with the formula C4H4S. Consisting of a planar five-membered ring, it is aromatic as indicated by its extensive substitution reactions. It is a colorless liquid with a benzene-like odor. In most of its reactions, it resembles benzene. Compounds analogous to thiophene include furan (C4H4O), selenophene (C4H4Se) and pyrrole (C4H4NH), which each vary by the heteroatom in the ring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polythiophene</span>

Polythiophenes (PTs) are polymerized thiophenes, a sulfur heterocycle. The parent PT is an insoluble colored solid with the formula (C4H2S)n. The rings are linked through the 2- and 5-positions. Poly(alkylthiophene)s have alkyl substituents at the 3- or 4-position(s). They are also colored solids, but tend to be soluble in organic solvents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colloidal gold</span> Suspension of gold nanoparticles in a liquid

Colloidal gold is a sol or colloidal suspension of nanoparticles of gold in a fluid, usually water. The colloid is coloured usually either wine red or blue-purple . Due to their optical, electronic, and molecular-recognition properties, gold nanoparticles are the subject of substantial research, with many potential or promised applications in a wide variety of areas, including electron microscopy, electronics, nanotechnology, materials science, and biomedicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentacene</span> Hydrocarbon compound (C22H14) made of 5 fused benzene rings

Pentacene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of five linearly-fused benzene rings. This highly conjugated compound is an organic semiconductor. The compound generates excitons upon absorption of ultra-violet (UV) or visible light; this makes it very sensitive to oxidation. For this reason, this compound, which is a purple powder, slowly degrades upon exposure to air and light.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molecular sensor</span>

A molecular sensor or chemosensor is a molecular structure that is used for sensing of an analyte to produce a detectable change or a signal. The action of a chemosensor, relies on an interaction occurring at the molecular level, usually involves the continuous monitoring of the activity of a chemical species in a given matrix such as solution, air, blood, tissue, waste effluents, drinking water, etc. The application of chemosensors is referred to as chemosensing, which is a form of molecular recognition. All chemosensors are designed to contain a signalling moiety and a recognition moiety, that is connected either directly to each other or through a some kind of connector or a spacer. The signalling is often optically based electromagnetic radiation, giving rise to changes in either the ultraviolet and visible absorption or the emission properties of the sensors. Chemosensors may also be electrochemically based. Small molecule sensors are related to chemosensors. These are traditionally, however, considered as being structurally simple molecules and reflect the need to form chelating molecules for complexing ions in analytical chemistry. Chemosensors are synthetic analogues of biosensors, the difference being that biosensors incorporate biological receptors such as antibodies, aptamers or large biopolymers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Temperature-responsive polymer</span> Polymer showing drastic changes in physical properties with temperature

Temperature-responsive polymers or thermoresponsive polymers are polymers that exhibit drastic and discontinuous changes in their physical properties with temperature. The term is commonly used when the property concerned is solubility in a given solvent, but it may also be used when other properties are affected. Thermoresponsive polymers belong to the class of stimuli-responsive materials, in contrast to temperature-sensitive materials, which change their properties continuously with environmental conditions. In a stricter sense, thermoresponsive polymers display a miscibility gap in their temperature-composition diagram. Depending on whether the miscibility gap is found at high or low temperatures, either an upper critical solution temperature (UCST) or a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) exists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silsesquioxane</span> Molecular compound with applications in ceramics

A silsesquioxane is an organosilicon compound with the chemical formula [RSiO3/2]n. Silsesquioxanes are colorless solids that adopt cage-like or polymeric structures with Si-O-Si linkages and tetrahedral Si vertices. Silsesquioxanes are members of polyoctahedral silsesquioxanes ("POSS"), which have attracted attention as preceramic polymer precursors to ceramic materials and nanocomposites. Diverse substituents (R) can be attached to the Si centers. The molecules are unusual because they feature an inorganic silicate core and an organic exterior. The silica core confers rigidity and thermal stability.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thiol-yne reaction</span>

The thiol-yne reaction is an organic reaction between a thiol and an alkyne. The reaction product is an alkenyl sulfide. The reaction was first reported in 1949 with thioacetic acid as reagent and rediscovered in 2009. It is used in click chemistry and in polymerization, especially with dendrimers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polyfluorene</span> Chemical compound

Polyfluorene is a polymer with formula (C13H8)n, consisting of fluorene units linked in a linear chain — specifically, at carbon atoms 2 and 7 in the standard fluorene numbering. It can also be described as a chain of benzene rings linked in para positions with an extra methylene bridge connecting every pair of rings.

In polymer chemistry, chain walking (CW) or chain running or chain migration is a mechanism that operates during some alkene polymerization reactions. CW can be also considered as a specific case of intermolecular chain transfer. This reaction gives rise to branched and hyperbranched/dendritic hydrocarbon polymers. This process is also characterized by accurate control of polymer architecture and topology. The extent of CW, displayed in the number of branches formed and positions of branches on the polymers are controlled by the choice of a catalyst. The potential applications of polymers formed by this reaction are diverse, from drug delivery to phase transfer agents, nanomaterials, and catalysis.

Thermoresponsive polymers can be used as stationary phase in liquid chromatography. Here, the polarity of the stationary phase can be varied by temperature changes, altering the power of separation without changing the column or solvent composition. Thermally related benefits of gas chromatography can now be applied to classes of compounds that are restricted to liquid chromatography due to their thermolability. In place of solvent gradient elution, thermoresponsive polymers allow the use of temperature gradients under purely aqueous isocratic conditions. The versatility of the system is controlled not only through changing temperature, but through the addition of modifying moieties that allow for a choice of enhanced hydrophobic interaction, or by introducing the prospect of electrostatic interaction. These developments have already introduced major improvements to the fields of hydrophobic interaction chromatography, size exclusion chromatography, ion exchange chromatography, and affinity chromatography separations as well as pseudo-solid phase extractions.

Functionalized polyolefins are olefin polymers with polar and nonpolar functionalities attached onto the polymer backbone. There has been an increased interest in functionalizing polyolefins due to their increased usage in everyday life. Polyolefins are virtually ubiquitous in everyday life, from consumer food packaging to biomedical applications; therefore, efforts must be made to study catalytic pathways towards the attachment of various functional groups onto polyolefins in order to affect the material's physical properties.

Diketopyrrolopyrroles (DPPs) are organic dyes and pigments based on the heterocyclic dilactam 2,5-dihydropyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione, widely used in optoelectronics. DPPs were initially used as pigments in the painting industry due to their high resistance to photodegradation. More recently, DPP derivatives have been also investigated as promising fluorescent dyes for bioimaging applications, as well as components of materials for use in organic electronics.

Catalyst transfer polymerization (CTP), or catalyst transfer polycondensation, is a type of living chain-growth polymerization that is used for synthesizing conjugated polymers. Benefits to using CTP over other methods are low polydispersity and control over number average molecular weight in the resulting polymers. Very few monomers have been demonstrated to undergo CTP.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Itaconic anhydride</span> Chemical compound

Itaconic anhydride is the cyclic anhydride of itaconic acid and is obtained by the pyrolysis of citric acid. It is a colourless, crystalline solid, which dissolves in many polar organic solvents and hydrolyzes forming itaconic acid. Itaconic anhydride and its derivative itaconic acid have been promoted as biobased "platform chemicals" and bio- building blocks.) These expectations, however, have not been fulfilled.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tellurophenes</span> Chemical compound

Tellurophenes are the tellurium analogue of thiophenes and selenophenes.

Eilaf Egap is an assistant professor of Materials Science at Rice University. She works on imaging techniques and biomaterials for early diagnostics and drug delivery. She was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology MLK Visiting Scholar in 2011.

A chemical sensor array is a sensor architecture with multiple sensor components that create a pattern for analyte detection from the additive responses of individual sensor components. There exist several types of chemical sensor arrays including electronic, optical, acoustic wave, and potentiometric devices. These chemical sensor arrays can employ multiple sensor types that are cross-reactive or tuned to sense specific analytes.

Photonic crystal sensors use photonic crystals: nanostructures composed of periodic arrangements of dielectric materials that interact with light depending on their particular structure, reflecting lights of specific wavelengths at specific angles. Any change in the periodicity or refractive index of the structure can give rise to a change in the reflected color, or the color perceived by the observer or a spectrometer. That simple principle makes them useful colorimetric intuitive sensors for different applications including, but not limited to, environmental analysis, temperature sensing, magnetic sensing, biosensing, diagnostics, food quality control, security, and mechanical sensing. Many animals in nature such as fish or beetles employ responsive photonic crystals for camouflage, signaling or to bait their prey. The variety of materials utilizable in such structures ranging from inorganic, organic as well as plasmonic metal nanoparticles makes these structures highly customizable and versatile. In the case of inorganic materials, variation of the refractive index is the most commonly exploited effect in sensing, while periodicity change is more commonly exhibited in polymer-based sensors. Besides their small size, current developments in manufacturing technologies have made them easy and cheap to fabricate on a larger scale, making them mass-producible and practical.

References

  1. ↑ "Anne McNeil Faculty Profile". University of Michigan Chemistry Faculty. Retrieved 27 January 2018.
  2. ↑ Erickson, Jim (20 November 2017). "Seven U-M scientists, engineers named 2017 AAAS Fellows". Michigan News. University of Michigan. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Anne J. McNeil, PhD". Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Retrieved 27 March 2018.
  4. ↑ Bryan, Zachary; McNeil, Anne (3 September 2013). "Conjugated Polymer Synthesis via Catalyst-Transfer Polycondensation (CTP): Mechanism, Scope, and Applications" (PDF). Macromolecules. 46 (21): 8395. Bibcode:2013MaMol..46.8395B. doi:10.1021/ma401314x . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  5. ↑ Palermo, Edmund; McNeil, Anne (20 July 2018). "Impact of Copolymer Sequence on Solid-State Properties for Random, Gradient and Block Copolymers containing Thiophene and Selenophene" (PDF). Macromolecules. 45 (15): 5948–5955. doi:10.1021/ma301135n . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  6. ↑ Souther, Kendra; Leone, Amanda; Vitek, Andrew; Palermo, Edmund; LaPointte, Anne; Coates, Geoff; Zimmerman, Paul; McNeil, Anne (26 October 2017). "Trials and tribulations of designing multitasking catalysts for olefin/thiophene block copolymerizations". Journal of Polymer Science Part A. 56: 132–137. doi: 10.1002/pola.28885 .
  7. ↑ Smith, Mitchell; Leone, Amanda; Zimmerman, Paul; McNeil, Anne (9 December 2016). "Impact of Preferential π-Binding in Catalyst-Transfer Polycondensation of Thiazole Derivatives". ACS Macro Lett. 5 (12): 1411–1415. doi:10.1021/acsmacrolett.6b00886. PMID   35651203.
  8. ↑ Palermo, Edmund; McNeil, Anne (26 June 2013). "Impact of p-conjugated gradient sequence copolymers on polymer blend morphology" (PDF). Polymer Chemistry. 4 (17): 4604–4611. doi:10.1039/c3py00601h . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  9. ↑ King, Kelsey; McNeil, Anne (1 March 2010). "Streamlined approach to a new gelator: inspiration from solid-state interactions for a mercury-induced gelation" (PDF). Chemical Communications. 46 (20): 3511–3513. doi:10.1039/c002081h. PMID   20582351 . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  10. ↑ Zurcher, Danielle; Adhia, Yash; Dı´az Romero, Julian; McNeil, Anne (2014-05-27). "Modifying a known gelator scaffold for nitrite detection†" (PDF). Chemical Communications. 50 (58): 7813–7816. doi:10.1039/c4cc02504k. PMID   24905176 . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  11. ↑ Chen, Jing; Wu, Weiwei; McNeil, Anne (26 May 2012). "Detecting a peroxide-based explosive via molecular gelation" (PDF). ChemComm. 48 (58): 7310–7312. doi:10.1039/c2cc33486k. PMID   22711139 . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  12. ↑ Bremmer, Steven; McNeil, Anne; Soellner, Matthew (18 December 2013). "Enzyme-triggered gelation: targeting proteases with internal cleavage sites" (PDF). ChemComm. 50 (14): 1691–1693. doi:10.1039/c3cc48132h. PMC   4143987 . PMID   24394494 . Retrieved 28 January 2018.
  13. ↑ Veits, Gesine; Carter, Kelsey; Cox, Sarah; McNeil, Anne (2 September 2017). "Developing a Gel-Based Sensor Using Crystal Morphology Prediction". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 138 (37): 12228–12233. doi:10.1021/jacs.6b06269. PMID   27598826.
  14. ↑ "A Conversation with Dr. Anne McNeil: Celebrating 20 Years of Beckman Scholars". Beckman News. Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. May 18, 2017. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
  15. ↑ "Anne McNeil". Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation. 2009. Retrieved 1 August 2018.
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