June 7, 2024.

We are pleased to announce that Smruti Ranjan and Pramya Ranjan have joined our group as interns.We look forward to their fresh perspectives and contributions they will bring to our research efforts.

Welcome Guys!

May 7, 2024.

We are delighted to announce that three of our esteemed lab members, Biki, Nadira, and KP, have successfully completed their preliminary exams. We are incredibly proud of their accomplishments and look forward to their continued contributions to science.

Congratulations Guys!

May 3, 2024.

We are thrilled to announce that Nikita has been awarded the prestigious Dean's Fellowship for 2024! This recognition is a testament to Nikita's exceptional dedication, hard work, and academic excellence. We are incredibly proud of your achievements and can't wait to see all the great things you will accomplish in the future.

Congratulations Nikita!

April 27, 2024.

The Glusac Group had an absolute blast celebrating Erik and Alice's successful graduation defenses with a fun-filled evening of bowling at Lucky Strike! Congratulations to Erik and Alice on reaching this incredible milestone. Here's to your bright futures ahead! 🎉

Congratulations Alice and Erik!

March 7, 2024. Congratulations to Dr. Erik on successfully defending his PhD thesis titled "Mechanistic Insights Into the Interfacial Electrochemistry of Carbon-Based Electrocatalysts." His research has shed light on the complex electrochemical processes at play, paving the way for advancements in energy conversion and storage technologies. This achievement not only marks a significant milestone in Dr. Erik's academic journey but also contributes valuable knowledge to the field of electrochemistry.

Well done, Dr. Erik! 

February 29, 2024. Congratulations to Dr. Alice on defending her PhD thesis, "Photochemical Carbon Dioxide Capture and Conversion by Metal-Organic Frameworks." Her groundbreaking work offers promising solutions for tackling climate change and advances the field of sustainable chemistry. We look forward to her future contributions and achievements in science.

Well done, Dr. Alice! Your future in scientific research looks bright.

January 12, 2024. Our collaborator, Dr. Dandan Gao (a junior research group leader at the Department of Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany), is currently on a six-week visit to our lab, strengthening the established collaboration between our two groups. We extend a warm welcome to Dr. Dandan Gao, anticipating a valuable exchange of knowledge and a fulfilling experience during her time in Chicago! Welcome to the group, Dr. Gao!

October 26, 2023. Nikita's paper focuses on getting a mechanistic approch on mixed metal oxides, for over all water splitting  using XAS combined with Tafel slope analysis.
Congratulations, Nikita!

October 1, 2023. We're thrilled to have Abdul as a new addition to our group.

September 8, 2023. Alice's paper demonstrates facile tuning of optical bandgap in pbz-MOF-1 via postsynthetic modifications.

Great job, Alice!

June 6, 2023. Erik's paper looks at how cationic redox mediators affect discharging of a Li-O₂ battery. We think it will be an interesting study for all those in the field.

Great job, Erik!

June 5, 2023. Matt defended his thesis titled, "Light-induced CO₂ reduction using Ru complexes with large nanographene ligands" and received excellent comments from his exam committee.

We are proud of you Matt!

May 11, 2023. Rosmi presented her preliminary exam, which was titled, "Photoreductive CO2 capture using Zr-nanographene MOFs" and received much praise from her exam committee. We are proud of you Rosmi.

We are proud of you Rosmi!

March 23, 2023. Here is Ksenija's perspective on "Are science and technology friends or foes?"" It really is an intresting question. What are your thoughts on it?

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01171-8

Congratulations Ksenija, for your Nature Chemistry publication!

March 15, 2023. In this paper, Alice investigate the mechanism of photochemical CO2 reduction by a Zr-nanographene metal-organic framework. It was proposed that the catalysis happens by "photoreactive capture" of CO2 by Zr-nodes. A single photon absorbed by the nanographene ligand then initiates a cascade of electron/hydrogen atom transfers that convert captured CO2 into formate. The paper is under review in JACS, and can be found in chem archive in the following link.

https://doi.org/10.26434/chemrxiv-2023-1nv5r

Congratulations Alice!

January 24, 2023. It's a significant achievement and a testament to your expertise in the field of ultrafast laser spectroscopy. I'm sure this accomplishment will inspire others in the scientific community to write more such papers, which will help undergrads in understanding key concepts behind working of ultrafast spectroscopy.

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.2c00981

Congratulations, Ksenija!

Aug 1, 2023. Our lab family just got a little bigger! We're thrilled to have all of you. Pouyan, Biki, Nadira, Ashutosh, and Krishna, and we hope you feel right at home as we embark on this exciting research journey together.
Its the higgest number of intake we had till now!!

July 23, 2022. Matt reported an interesting study of fast nonradiative excited-state deactivation in a Ru-bipyrimidine complex. The relevant coordinate appears to be the N---H bond stretching in the hydrogen-bond adduct formed between the solvent molecule and the N-center on the bipyrimidine. Interested in learning more? Here is the link to the paper:

https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.2c02255

Congratulations, Matt!

July 16, 2022. CB has come to UIC to work as a post-doc in the Glusac group. His research focuses on the synthesis of electrocatalysts and membrane materials for CO2 electrolyzers.

April 2, 2022. Juan Pablo has come to UIC to work with us as a post-doc. His research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). In particular, he is working on the modification of Zr MOFs for the concurrent capture and photoreduction of CO2.

It's good to have you with us, JP!

April 2, 2022. Love Patel has joined our group to gain experience doing undergraduate research. He will be working with Sebastian on his projects involving catalytic CO2 reduction.

Welcome to the team, Love!

April 2, 2022. We have all sorts of new instruments coming to UIC including a new UV-vis spectrometer with diffuse reflectance capabilities, a new vacuum oven, and a programmable dip-coater for synthesizing MOF thin films!

It's like Christmas, but in April... and it's expensive scientific equipment instead of toys.

February 5, 2022. Dr. Glusac, Biki, and Erik completed a half-marathon outside in the chilly, Chicago winter weather. More races are planned for the future.

Just keep runnin'!

February 5, 2022. In this paper, we show how the solubilization of a graphene nanoribbon results in a long-lived triplet excited state, suitable for applications in photocatalysis.

Good job, team!

December 11, 2021. Congrats to Dr. Weerasooriya for successfully passing his thesis defense and officially completing his PhD! Ravi has accepted a position at Intel. Congrats on the new job, we will miss you!

December 11, 2021. Congrats to Jon for graduating from our program with his Master of Science! Jon is joining Agilent as a field service engineer. Congrats on the new job, Jon, they are lucky to have you!

December 11, 2021. Congrats to Erik for being awarded with the Paaren Fellowship. We are very proud of you!

December 11, 2021. Zack will be studying high energy density materials using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to analyze their combustion and decomposition reaction mechanisms.

Welcome to our group, Zack! Have fun in the laser lab!

December 11, 2021. Sebastian will be working on artificial photosynthesis research where he will be using amines to capture carbon dioxide to be photochemically reduced by metal free hydrides to produce formate and other compounds.

Welcome to the team, Sebastian! May the chemistry gods smile upon thee.

December 11, 2021. Rosmi has joined our group where she will work with femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to understand the fundamental photophysics of metal complexes and metal organic frameworks for the photocatalytic conversion of atmospheric carbon dioxide to value added chemicals.

Welcome aboard, Rosmi, we look forward to working with you!

September 10, 2021. Nikita completed his preliminary exam where she discussed her projects on light harvesting graphene quantum dots. She did an excellent job and we are very proud of her.

Congratulations, Nikita!

September 10, 2021. Matt completed his preliminary exam where he discussed his projects on graphene nanoribbons photophysics. He did an excellent job and we are very proud of him. Furthermore, Erik apologizes for making this announcement five months late.

Great job, Matt!

August 21, 2021. Varun did an excellent job presenting his work on graphene quantum dot assebmlies. Varun would agree, it was a long and arduous process and n order to properly celebrate, we took to the trails of Starved Rock State Park for a long and arduous day of hiking.

Congratulations, we are very proud Varun!

August 21, 2021. After a wonderful seminar detailing all the hard work performed in the Glusac lab, Ksenija has been awarded full professorship.

Congratulations Professor Glusac!

August 21, 2021. Biki Kumar has joined the group as a masters student from University of Mumbai. Here Biki will do his thesis research on our DOE funded CO₂ capture in collaboration with the team from Argonne National Laboratory.

Welcome to the group, Biki!

August 21, 2021. Undergraduate student, Anthony Vichio, has joined the Glusac lab where he will be working on spectroelectrochemical studies of copper-quinone complexes.

Happy to have you, Anthony!

August 21, 2020. Ariana, an undergraduate student, has joined the lab where she'll be working with Alice on the NSF-funded oxygen atom transfer in collaboration with members from the Cabana and Mankad groups.

Welcome to the group, Ariana!

May 2, 2021. We are thrilled to announce that we were awarded NSF funding to study oxygen atom transfer electrocatalysis by molecular catalyst/electrode hybrids! Our collaborative team (Glusac/Mankad/Cabana groups) will study hybrid catalysts composed of carbon electrodes whose basal and edge plane sites are conjugated with molecular electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction reaction. .

Alice, Jon, Pinar and Khagesh: congratulations and good luck!

March 6, 2021. Marija did an excellent job presenting her PhD work. The committee members were very impressed, even saying, "I should have asked my PhD students to attend, to see what a defense should look like." We are very proud of Marija and excited to see what science her Postdoc at SLAC will produce. We celebrated with a socially distant Zoom meeting where we played Among Us and Pandemic online.

Congratulations, Marija. We will miss you!

March 6, 2021. Ravindra's paper looks at the slow hydride transfer to CO₂ in carbon dioxide reduction catalysis. We think it will be an interesting study for all those in the field.

Great job, Ravi!

January 9, 2021.Marija's paper on strong electronic coupling of graphene nanoribbons has been accepted to ACS Applied Electronic Materials and will be published soon. Way to start 2021 off right!

Beautiful work!

January 9, 2021. Alice completed her preliminary exam in front of her committee and did excellently. She is the the third of our graduate students to pass their prelims. Congratulations Alice!

Keep up the good work!

December 5, 2020. Jon presented his preliminary exam, which was titled, "On the Road to Photocatalytic CO₂ Reduction" and received much praise from his exam committee. We are proud of you Jon.

Very nice!

December 5, 2020. The fellowship is given to PhD students in the chemistry department for their outstanding achievements. Varun won the fellowship for his work in which he develops new, well-defined graphene quantum dot assemblies and studies their photophysical and light harvesting properties.

Congratulations Varun!

December 5, 2020. Our collaboration with scientists from Argonne National Laboratory and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has been funded by the DOE. Our work will focus on developing photochemical methods that enable CO₂ capture directly from the atmosphere that may be combined with photochemical conversion to fuels and value-added chemicals.
 

November 6, 2020. Erik presented his preliminary exam (via Zoom), entitled, "Fundamental Studies of Electrocatalytic Nanocarbons" and passed with flying colors. Congratulations to him and we're excited to see what's next.

Well done!

November 6, 2020. First year student, Aaron Butts, is joining the Glusac Research Group. Aaron is going to be working to develop syntheses for functionalized, bi-metallic graphitic electrodes.

Welcome to the group, Aaron!

October 10, 2020. Ravindra's poster, showing his work on metal-free hydride based carbon dioxide reduction, placed third at the Division of Energy and Fuels ACS National Meeting. A great deomonstration of the excellent work we do in the research group.

Keep it up Ravi!

September 14, 2020. Here is the newest addition to our group, Alice Zheng. She is a PhD student who will be working on basal plane functionalization of graphene electrodes with chemically-tunable molecular catalysts for oxygen atom transfer chemistry.

Welcome Alice!

September 12, 2020. Erik and Jon both won a TA Appreciation award for the 2019-20 academic year. No award ceremony means they'll have to split Erik's award from the previous year.

Share nicely.

September 12, 2020. Our group was awarded an NSF grant to study biomimetic NADH analogs for selective CO2 reduction to methanol. Artificial Photosynthesis in action!

March 21, 2020. Orders to shelter-in-place means no lab work for the time being. Assuming we all keep our sanity, this will be valuable time to write manuscripts and come up with fresh ideas. No worries though, we're still having group meetings.

The Glusac group will return.

February 22, 2020. Varun and Erik made beamline 12BM their home for a long, rather sleepless weekend at the APS. They were collecting valuable X-ray data for Varun's work with cobalt catalysts.

Careful with the expensive equipment guys.

January 25, 2020. Varun's work studies exciton dynamics in graphene quantum dot assemblies and can be found in the January 2nd issue of J. Phys. Chem. Lett.

Well done.

November 23, 2019. Marija's work on graphene quantum dot electrodes has been accepted to ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, to be published soon.

Nice work!

October 19, 2019. Stefan succussfully defended his thesis entitled "Designing Biomimetic NADH-Analogs for Artificial Photosynthesis," making him the first student to do so since the move to UIC. After the defense we enjoyed a celebratory reception. Some couldn't be present, but a rudimentary photoshop did the trick.

Congratulations Dr. Ilic, we are all very proud.

October 19, 2019. First year graduate student Nikita Gupta has joined the Glusac research group. Nikita did a semester of Master's research in our lab before returning to India for graduation. Now she is back again to work on light harvesting and charge transfer of metal-coordinated graphene quantum dot assemblies.

Welcome back Nikita.

September 21, 2019. First year graduate student, Matt Drummer, has joined the Glusac Group. Matt will be studying exciton dynamics in graphene quantum dot assemblies using ultrafast laser pump-probe spectroscopy.

May the lights shine brightly for you.

August 24, 2019. Marija and Erik spent a weekend at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory. They used in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study our Ru-coordinated nanoribbons.

It was a long and tired weekend.

July 3, 2019. The Sleeping Club has its newest inductees: Welcome, Erik and Marija! Lets hope you won't sleep through those experiments at CNM.

Work hard - sleep light!

June 24, 2019. Milica Peric is visiting us from University of Belgrade, Serbia. Her summer internship will focus on CO2RR and hydrogenation projects.

Welcome to Chicago and Glusac group!

June 6, 2019. Marija's conformational analysis work on covalently linked dimers has been accepted by Journal of Physical Organic Chemsitry.

Splendid!

June 1, 2019. Erik was recognized as one of the top teaching assistants in the chemistry department at UIC. He was given the Chemistry Teaching Assistant Appreciation Award during a departmental ceremony.

Congratulations and keep up the good work.

Apr 27, 2019. Stefan's paper on hydride regeneration of acridines and benzimidazoles has been accepted by Chemical Communications. Further, it has been included in a themed collection: Frontiers in Proton Coupled Electron Transfer (PCET)

Good work, Stefan!

Apr 27, 2019. Our proposal for STM imaging of our Ru-coordinated graphene nanoribbons has been approved. Marija and Erik will be collaborating with scienctists at Argonne National Laboratory in the Center for Nanoscale Materials to perform the experiments.

We are excited to get to work!

Apr 27, 2019. Xiaoxiao finished her final day working in the Glusac lab. We want to thank her for her time spent working with all of us.

Farewell, Xiaoxiao!

March 22, 2019. Alex Poole, our new undergraduate, will be doing computational modeling of the electrochemical characteristics of redox mediators.

Welcome, Alex!

March 16, 2019. After a full semester spent working with metal-coordinated graphene quantum dots, Nikita returned to University of Mumbai to defend her Master's Thesis.

We wish you luck!

Feb 9, 2019. Stefan's paper on benzimidazoles used in CO₂ reduction was featured in "Spotlights on Recent JACS Publications." The inclusion signifies the intriguing nature and importance of his research.

Congrats, Stefan!