The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will host a lecture by Arsalan Mirjafari, associate professor of chemistry at Florida Gulf Coast University, at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 12 as part of the department's Spring 2018 Colloquium Series.

The free talk, entitled "Applications of Click Chemistry in the Synthesis of Functional Ionic Liquids," will take place in CHEM 144 and will be followed by a reception in CHEM 105 at 4:30 p.m.

Mirjafari earned his Ph.D. in organic chemistry from University of Isfahan, Iran in 2009. He then joined University of South Alabama as a postdoctoral fellow in 2010. Since 2012, Mirjafari has been an associate professor of chemistry at Florida Gulf Coast University in Fort Myers, FL. His research focuses on the synthesis and applications of functionalized ionic liquids, which he will talk about during his lecture.

Over the past decade, there has been a phenomenal rise in activity in the field of ionic liquids as measured by many metrics, including publication rates and the introduction of both ionic liquids as commercial products and commercialized ionic liquids-enabled processes. And, like in any field, that of ionic liquids is constantly evolving, with new concepts and applications continuously emerging.

Among the areas of rapidly increasing interest and importance is the use of ionic liquids containing functionalities. However, lack of accurate structure-properties relationships studies represent a major obstacle to the synthesis/preparation functionalized ionic liquids with precisely engineered structures and properties for specific needs.

Mirjafari's research team focused on the purposeful development of novel classes of amphiphilic ionic liquids with profoundly lower melting points (more fluid) and outstanding properties as such. These "click" chemistry-mediated strategies were employed to incorporate a diverse array of functionalities into the structures of ionic liquids. Due to the highly amphiphilic character and low-melting nature of the synthesized ionic liquids, they are desirable for a wide range of applications from liquid crystals to gene delivery.

For more information about this lecture, please contact Hudson Beyzavi, assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at beyzavi@uark.edu and visit his website at beyzavigroup.uark.edu.