Dr. Richard O'Brien

My overall teaching philosophy is three-fold: 1) the use of problem solving and critical thinking in the laboratory, 2) the development of a sense of ownership for one's work through accountability and not through entitlement, and 3) providing reasonable solutions and developing situational awareness in the laboratory. The first element of my teaching philosophy centers around providing opportunities for the students to use their brains to critically think about the objectives of each experiment and to be thought of as problem solvers. Once they graduate from school, their careers will focus on solving problems in whatever career they chose. As an example, in my prelab discussion for the Chemistry CH101L, General Chemistry CH131L, General Chemistry CH132L, Organic Chemistry 201L, and Organic CH202L laboratories, I write the goals, demonstrate equipment, laboratory techniques used for the experiment, safety and deliverables for each experiment on the blackboard and through a PowerPoint presentation on CANVAS. I try to get the students to think about each aspect of the experiment before we start. I want the information that the students read in preparation for class to make sense before they actually start the experiment. I try to format the discussion around the fact that they are trying to solve a problem or a series of problems through discovery during the experiment. My perceived strengths lie in organization of the material and that the students know exactly what they are accountable for the experiment. The hardest part is getting the students to independently think for themselves without me giving in and providing the solution.

The second element involves the student taking ownership for their work in the laboratory and the fact that they have to earn their grade through performance of the said tasks within the experiment. The students must be held accountable for their actions and the sense of entitlement must be removed. During my prelab discussions, I talk about deliverables for each experiment and the laboratory techniques or information that they must become proficient in during the experiment. I think it is important to tell the students what's expected from them for each experiment and for the overall class as well, including the lab practicum. Back in 2014, my colleague and I had the opportunity to restructure the CH101 laboratory, which is typically filled with students wanting to attend a nursing program. The emphasis shifted to a set of laboratory experiments, laboratory manual, and curriculum that was tailored to meet the needs of an undergraduate student entering a nursing program. The College of Nursing provided input into the laboratory manual as well as provided lectures to the students to inform them of information pertinent to a nursing program.

The third element of my teaching philosophy applies to reasonability and situational awareness with regard to the students and their interactions in the laboratory. I try to communicate realistic and achievable expectations during the experiment. I bring fifteen years of industrial experience to teaching and I try to teach the students that it's important to deliver a reasonable answer to the problem and not just an answer. In their careers, they will be problem solvers. This means that they will have to provide reasonable solutions to the problems encountered and not settle for just completing a task without knowing if they have provided a correct or reasonable solution. The other part of the third element in my teaching philosophy involves situational awareness. During the laboratory experiment, I try to teach the students to be aware of their surrounding for safety reasons; be aware of what's going on during the experiment as to achieve a reasonable solution; and to be aware of taking good notes or data for documentation purposes. In their careers, they will observe activities and will be required to document what they observe. This element is one of the hardest to get the students to participate. My biggest challenge, at this stage of their college careers, is to get them to observe and think. Most students are waiting to be told what the next step will be in the experiment.

In the research involving the thiol-ene chemistry, we synthesize new molecules that incorporate the sulfur atom into the alkyl side chain of the imidazolium, ammonium, and pyridinium cationic frameworks. The incorporation of the sulfur atom has profound effects upon the melting points of these ionic liquids as compared with their saturated and unsaturated counterparts. These new ionic liquids are attractive as advanced materials for lubricants, phase transfer reagents, freezing points depressants, heat transfer fluids, and materials for separations.

In the research involving the cyclopropanation chemistry, we are incorporating cyclopropyl moieties into long, lipidic chains for high demanding applications, such as high-energy dense fuels. Our results demonstrate that incorporating one or more cyclopropyl moieties in long aliphatic chains of imidazolium-based ionic liquids is highly effective in lowering the melting points of such materials relative to their counterparts bearing linear, saturated, or thioether side chains. It is shown that the cyclopropane moiety effectively disrupts packing, favoring formation of gauche conformer in the side chains, resulting in enhancement of fluidity. This was irrespective of the configuration of the methylene bridge, although marked differences in the effect of cis- and trans-monocyclopropanated ILs on the melting points were observed. Energy-demanding applications such as aviation, rocketry, and long-haul shipping currently rely on petroleum-derived hydrocarbons that are difficult to replace with sustainable alternatives. Polycyclopropanated compounds offer excellent potential as high-energy fuels due to their high energy density. However, the chemical syntheses of these molecules are challenging. Inspired by nature, we have introduced the first class of polycyclopropanated lipid-like ionic liquids as energy-dense fuel candidates for energy-demanding applications.

• Stachurski, C.D., Davis, J.H., Jr., Cosby, T., Crowley, M.E., Larm, N.E., Ballentine, M.G., O’Brien, R.A., Zeller, M., Salter, E.A., Wierzbicki, A., Trulove, P.C., Durkin, D.P., “Physical and Electrochemical Analysis of N- Alkyl Pyrrolidinium Substituted Boronium Ionic Liquids, Inorg. Chem., 2023, 62, 18280-18289.
• O’Brien, R.A., Hillesheim, P., Soltani, M., Badilla-Nunez, K.J., Siu, B., Musozoda, M., West, K.N., Davis, J.H. Jr., Mirjafari, A. “Cyclopropane as an Unsaturation “Effect Isostere”: Lowering the Melting Points in Lipid-like Ionic Liquids.”, 2023, J. Phys. Chem. B., 127, 1429-1442.
• Lopansri, L.S., Letson, J.N., O’Brien, R.A., Battiste, D.R., Forbes, D.C., “NMR Deconvolution: Quantitative Profiling of Isomeric Mixtures.” World Journal of Chemical Education, 2022, 10(2), 51.
• Soltani, M., McGeehee, J.L., Stenson, A.C., O’Brien, R.A., Duranty, E.R., Salter, E.A., Wierzbicki, A, Glover, T.G., Davis, J.H., Jr. “Ionic liquids of superior thermal stability. Validation of PPh4+ as an organic cation of impressive thermodynamic durability”, RSC Advances, 2020, 10, 20521-20528.