Julia Milczanowski
Major: Natural Science
Biography: Julia is a senior majoring in Natural Sciences with a concentration in Cell and Molecular Biology, as well as a minor in Philosophy and Psychology. She hopes to go to medical school in the near future after spending some time working in biomedical research. Besides research, Julia spends most of her time working as an EMT with Fordham University EMS and dancing with Fordham's Expressions Dance Alliance. She is very thankful to gain research experience working under the mentorship of Dr. Thomas.
Title: Developing novel gels for environmental remediation: properties and gelation abilities of quaternary ammonium salts
Faculty Mentor: Marie Thomas, Department of Natural Sciences
Abstract: We present the synthesis and properties of amphiphilic quaternary ammonium salts based on the tertiary amine 1,4-diazobicyclo[2.2.2]octane (DABCO) along with the synthesis of various ionic liquids as part of a larger scheme to develop ion gels that may be useful for environmental remediation, specifically in the area of purifying petroleum products of nitrogen and sulfur contaminants. The compounds proposed were tested for their ability to gel water, ethanol, and room temperature ionic liquids. Nearly all proposed DABCO derivatives have been synthesized, melting points have been obtained for a few of the derivatives with differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), and thus far, di-cationic DABCO derivatives appear to be better gelators than the mono-cationic derivatives.