LOOKING INSIDE MOLECULES YSU runs unique program

Research that once took years to complete now takes weeks.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The red crystal measures 0.2 millimeter.
Resting atop a glass capillary that is roughly the size of two strands of hair, it is barely visible.
But it holds reams of atomic data. Matthias Zeller, a Youngstown State University postdoctoral researcher, is gathering the data. His goal is to determine the molecular structure of a tungsten- and phosphorous-containing compound.
How will he achieve this? By using the high-tech equipment in an X-ray laboratory unique to a largely undergraduate-based university such as YSU.
"Without that equipment, we couldn't do the research at all," said Zeller, who first learned to use the device -- a diffractometer -- at YSU. At other schools, even those with doctoral programs, such machines are not always accessible to students.
If they are, students must pay for time and adhere to strict schedules that sometimes mean they are unable to collect all necessary data.
At the university in Germany where Zeller completed work for his doctorate, he was able to look over the shoulder of faculty researchers using diffractometers.
"But I did nothing but look over their shoulder," he said.
YSU's advantage
"The advantage here is that anyone who wants to use them gets to use them," said Dr. Timothy Wagner, interim chairman of YSU's chemistry department. That means undergraduates, graduates and faculty work together and often make discoveries that add up to a shared credit on published research reports.
A goal is for researchers to grow crystals or powders that have never been made before and determine their molecular structures. The discoveries could lead to any number of applications.
Wagner and colleague Dr. Howard Metee gave some examples: Such a compound could make a better battery, a specific insulation or a new material for a baking dish. One YSU compound -- created by accident when oxygen sneaked into a reaction -- might lead to safer pigments for paints.
Such research used to take three to four years to complete, but diffractometers mean it can now be done in a few weeks, Wagner said.
"The fun of it, too, is to make something new and be the first one to see it and publish it," Wagner said. More than $2 million in equipment is housed in YSU's chemistry X-ray lab, Wagner said.
Uses
Two diffractometers view crystals one point at a time. A third views several points at a time and is able to give data on samples 10 times smaller that the other two; it also can work five times faster, meaning data can be collected overnight, rather than in a week.
Cameras attached to the X-ray units relay images to computers that show the arrangement of molecules in the compound. The equipment has been purchased over the years by funding through the National Science Foundation, the Ohio Board of Regents and YSU.
Besides academic discoveries, the diffractometers are used to help industry, by determining the structure of compounds developed in professional labs that lack high-tech devices.
YSU also works with other universities to run samples through the diffractometers for other academic researchers. Wagner also hopes to start programs that would allow local high school students access to the equipment.
Evelyn Lazich of Boardman, a graduate student in chemistry, plans to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Florida. She said her acceptance there was based on her undergraduate and graduate work at YSU, including the research she co-authored at both levels.
"We all have really good access to equipment here," said Lazich, who earned her most recent co-authorship for discovering a new phosphorous-containing compound.
Wagner said YSU offers a specific course on using such equipment and trained students can move on to jobs at pharmaceutical companies or chemical companies or on to graduate school. Even if they never see a diffractometer again, he added, they learn an appreciation of how compounds are structured.