Parents often tell tales of that one child who, rather than play like the other children, took apart their toys to see how they were put together.

West Virginia University chemistry professor Terry Gullion was one of those children and his family had the dismantled telephone and lawnmower to prove it.

Today, Gullion’s team of students, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences’ C. Eugene Bennett Department of Chemistry is investigating how things are put together at the molecular level.
Understanding the results can guide development of new materials for consumer products and more effective drug delivery systems for the medical world.

The WVU researchers conduct complex experiments that require them to design and build their own sophisticated equipment in crowded labs and busy workshops that look like something Jules Verne might have imagined. They struggle with electrical issues that wreak havoc on sensitive instruments, write computer code to control hardware, synthesize samples, analyze data and submit papers to scientific journals describing their findings.

Molecules are made from atoms. All the elements on the Periodic Table exist as single atoms and the way they join together to form specific molecules in specific structures and material is the subject of research.

Gullion’s primary tool is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). NMR requires strong magnets with magnetic field strengths more than 100,000 times the earth’s magnetic field. The samples are spun in the magnetic field at rates exceeding one million RPMs in special cylindrical ceramic tubes located in strange-looking probes. By applying pulses of radio-frequency irradiation, they are able to tease out structural and chemical details of the samples.

The Gullion group spends a significant amount of time developing new NMR methods and hardware designed to determine molecular structures and how molecules interact with one another. They apply their NMR techniques to determine the structures of naturally occurring protein fibers, lithium-doped polymer materials that are components of lithium ion batteries and peptides adsorbed on gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoparticle research has implications for drug delivery interaction in the human body.

Gullion is the principal investigator on a new $450,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to carry forward research with the title: “Switch Angle Sample Spinning Probes and High Resolution Dipolar Recoupling with Quadrupolar Nuclei.” The primary aim of this grant is to develop novel NMR probes designed to measure internuclear distances between various nuclei. Measurement of internuclear distances provides molecular structures which are difficult to come by.

Gullion said he and his colleagues like Dr. Eugene Mihaliuk, who is busy building parts for the next generation of NMR equipment, leave it to others to use their work to create new materials and products.

Their work has drawn attention and support from the federal government, as well as the international community. Gullion has collaborated with scientists in Japan, Israel, Germany and the United States.

Gullion said the results of the work at WVU can be used to build better products and materials. He said, for example, research WVU conducted on the structure of silk produced by Asian silk worms is being analyzed and considered for creation of new consumer products. Similar work was done for a company on the structure of materials used in batteries.

Meanwhile, U.S. companies are interested in drug delivery systems and synthetic spider silk experiments.

Much of the equipment needed by Gullion and his colleagues is not easy to secure or is simply not commercially available. They turn to Allen Burns, who supervises and operates the bustling computerized machine shop in the basement of the downtown Chemistry Research Laboratory building. Burns, using computer aided design drawings and sophisticated machinery, manufactures made-to-order parts that Gullion and Mihaliuk design to conduct their investigations. Without the strong technical support staff in the chemistry department, much of the innovative research would be nearly impossible to perform.

The work of these inquisitive chemistry researchers and the talented machinists who keep their equipment operating support three major activities identified in the University’s strategic plan: engagement with undergraduate, graduate and professional students in a challenging academic environment; pursuit of research and creative activity; and advancement of international activity and global engagement.

Overall results of the work play a major role in a fourth activity: enhancing the well-being and quality of life of the people of West Virginia, the U.S. and abroad.

In addition to his grant from the NSF, Gullion worked with professors Kung Wang, Bjorn Soderberg, Xiaodong Shi and Brian Popp to secure additional funding from the NSF in the amount of $210,320 to purchase a solution state NMR spectrometer. The new spectrometer will be housed in the Chemistry Research Laboratory building and will be used for teaching and research. All students seeking a degree in chemistry take a course that will train them how to use the new NMR spectrometer to determine molecular structures. The spectrometer will be especially useful to graduate students performing research in the area of synthetic chemistry, because it will enable them to determine the structures of new compounds.

-WVU-

gg/10/19/12

CONTACT: Gerrill Griffith, WVU Research Corp.
304.293.3743

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