Postdoctoral Fellow - Macrocycle Synthesis Chloride Sequestration and Sensing

Job Summary

The Department of Chemistry in the College of Arts + Sciences at Indiana University consists of a well‑rounded research community with cutting‑edge expertise in a wide variety of modern disciplines including analytical chemistry, organic chemistry, inorganic chemistry, physical chemistry, materials chemistry, and biochemistry.

This postdoctoral scholar position will explore innovative approaches to sequester and sense chloride by designing and synthesizing anion receptors for use in polymer materials and coatings. Critical activities involve the synthesis of novel receptors.

The intensive and extensive use of water in modern society places increasing demands on water supplies. This situation negatively impacts fresh water fit for human consumption and agricultural usage as well as the need in industry. Sustainable practices that either enable the removal of chloride from water or enable the performance of industrial processes even in chloride‑laden waters are needed. Traditional approaches use reverse osmosis (RO) and electrodialysis across membranes, ion exchange with resin beads, or simple distillation.

Despite advances in anion recognition chemistry, none of them use these principles, e.g., RO membranes leverage polyamide films that act as a size filter. This project seeks to take some of the first steps to leverage anion recognition chemistry for chloride sequestration and sensing in polymer materials.

This postdoctoral scholar position involves the synthesis of new and known chloride‑binding macrocycles and proof‑of‑concept testing of their ability to extract and sense chloride when incorporated into polymer materials.

• Organic synthesis of chloride‑binding macrocycles, modify structures as needed to enable compatibility with polymer materials.
• Design and synthesize new chloride‑binding macrocycles.
• Prepare polymer‑based materials and characterize chloride extraction and chloride capacity of polymer films.
• Proof‑of‑concept testing of turn‑on fluorescent sensor for chloride using polymer materials and coatings.
• Engage with industry and engineering collaborators.
• Publish findings in scientific papers.