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Member

File:nelson2.jpg Dr. Toby L. Nelson
Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Oklahoma State University Group website
OKPVRI Member Email: toby.nelson@okstate.edu

Design and synthesis of organic semiconductors, polymer chemistry, supramolecular materials, sustainable chemistry and development of bioinpired materials, biosensors and materials for energy applications. Development of new bioinspired organic semiconductors based on the natural pigment, Eumelanin.

Selected Publications

  • Selvaraju, S.; Adhikari, S.; Hopson, R. A.; Dai, S..; Rheingold, A. L.; Borunda, M. F.; Nelson, T. L. Effects of Structural Variations on the Optical and Electronic Properties of Eumelanin-Inspired Small Molecules J. Mater. Chem. C. 2016, 4, 3995 – 3999. This article is part of themed collection: Emerging Investigators 2016: Novel design strategies for new functional materials
  • Nelson, T. L. System and Method for Production of Artificial Eumelanin. International Patent Application No. PCT/US2015/021216. Reference: O3300-47216 (15-020 WO).
  • Selvaraju, S.; Sachinthani, K. A. N.; Hopson, R. A.; McFarland, F. M.; Guo, S.; Rheingold, A. L.; Nelson, T. L. Eumelanin-inspired core derived from vanillin: A new building block for organic semiconductors, Chem. Commun. 2015, 51, 2957–2959
  • Kobilka, B. M.; Hale, B. J.; Ewana, M. D.; Dubrovskiy, A. V.; Nelson, T. L.; Duzhkoc, V.; Jeffries-EL, M. Influence of heteroatoms on photovoltaic performance of donor-acceptor copolymers based on 2,6-di(thiophen-2-yl)benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b’]difurans and diketopyrrolopyrrole. Polym. Chem. 2013, 4, 5329-5336.
  • Nelson, T. L.; Young, T. M.; Liu, J.; Mishra, S. P.; Belot, J. A.; Balliet, C. L. Javier, A. E.; Kowalewski, T.; McCullough, R. D. Transistor Paint: High Mobilities in Small Bandgap Polymer Semiconductor Based on the Strong Acceptor, Diketopyrrolopyrrole and Strong Donor, Dithienopyrrole. Adv. Mater. 2010, 22, 4617–4621.

Recent Presentations

  • “Design and Synthesis of Eumelanin-Inspired Materials”, 36th Reaction Mechanisms Conference, St. Louis, MO, June 26, 2016.
  • “Design and Synthesis of Eumelanin-Inspired Organic Semiconductors”, Gordon Research Conference on Physical Organic Chemistry, Holderness School, Holderness, NH, June 24-25, 2015.
  • Design and Synthesis of Eumelanin-Inspired Polymers Derived from Vanillin”, 24 9th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO, March 22, 2015.
  • “Design and Synthesis of Well-Defined, Soluble Eumelanin-Inspired Polymers”, 247th American Chemical Society National Meeting, Dallas, TX, March 19, 2014.
  • “Harvest Sunlight with Plastic for the Production of Electricity”, TEDx OStateU, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK, October 22, 2013.

Student Information

Current Graduate Students: 5 Devang Khambhati, RaiAnna Hopson, Niradha Sachinthani, Santosh Adhikari, and Fathima Pary.

Current Undergraduate Students: 5 Susan Pham, Nancy Jennings, Victor Ekeh-Chiadi, Raegan Chambers, and Trip Henderson.