Applied Chemistry

Badria I. Al-Shihi
Main area of interest: Production water de-oiling: Processes and equipment designs, Production water treatment and re-use. Others:  Business Process Reengineering (BPR) techniques, Activity modeling, industrial process optimization and simulation, Concept engineering: project feasibility and economics.

Analytical Chemistry

Fakhr Eldin O. Suliman
Analytical Methodology and Instrumentation Development; emphasis include analysis of drugs in pharmaceutical and biological matrixes, developing protocols for monitoring organic and inorganic pollutants in environmental samples. Flow Injection techniques, GC-MS, LC and LC-MS are of prime interest.
Chemometrics: Application of statistical and numerical methods to solving problems in spectroscopic and chromatographic analyses.
Construction of solid phase reactors and flow through cells based on immobilization of reagents, for the use as optical and chemical sensors. Mainly interested in polymeric materials with special selective criteria such as molecular imprinted polymers.
Haider Al-Lawati
Microfluidic systems (lab on a chip): Microfluidics refers to any devices where fluids can be driven in a network of micron sized channels etched into a solid substrate. There are many unique advantages afforded by the reduced dimensions of microfluidic systems compared to classical methods. The reduction in the reaction vessel dimensions leads to a high degree of control, higher purity, better selectivity and small analyte volume. My research interest is in developing novel microfluidic systems for biological and environmental applications.
Mass spectrometry based proteomics: Proteomics is the science concerned with characterization of the total protein expressed by a living cell and how this expression changes under the influence of biological or environmental perturbation, for example, when a cell or tissue is exposed to a certain type of drug. In many cases, a comparison between normal and diseased cell or tissue is carried out to find which proteins are expressed differently.
Proteomics is considered a very challenging science. This is because of the very large number of proteins with various molecular masses present in different concentrations in a single sample. Additionally their structure and concentration may be affected by biological or environmental perturbation. The objective of my research is to explore the use of microfluidic systems in proteomics by developing an efficient on-chip digestion method integrated with an on-chip separation method and connected to an electrospray ionization mass spectrometer (ESI-MS). The system can be highly sensitive due to the reduction of human interference and sample loss as all the digestion products will pass to the detector. The direct coupling of the microfluidic system with ESI-MS may also increase sample throughput.
High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC): My research interest is focused toward developing challenging separation methods using HPLC.
Salma M. Z. Al-Kindy
My research interest had been in developing new methodology for monitoring analyte of biological and environmental interest. This range from synthesis of novel fluorigenic and phosphorigenic labels for monitoring proteins and amino acids to developing sensor for monitoring toxic metals using Molecular Imprinting protocol. Another approach deals with developing methods for the analysis of enantiomeric drugs. The method involves the synthesis of chiral derivatisation reagents, needed for HPLC separation of enantiomeric anti-inflammatory drugs and amino acids. Other area of interests includes analysis of essential oil from endemic plants using GC-FID and GC-MS.

Inorganic Chemistry

Ja'afar K. Jawad
Synthesis of new platinum complexes as models anticancer agents. Synthesis, characterization and oxidative – addition reactions of new tin complexes using IR, UV-Visible and multi-nuclear high-field NMR, single crystal X-ray facilities and elemental analysis; development of new transition metal complexes for polymerization, catalysis and biological effects.
Khaled Melghit
Preparation and characterization of new advanced inorganic solid state materials (mainly oxides) by using soft chemistry techniques “la chimie douce”.
Many important materials are metastable phases and can not be prepared by the classical method « ceramic route »; they can only be prepared by the soft chemistry techniques. In general these materials are prepared in a solution medium at low temperature. New metastable phases are often obtained either directly or after heating at relatively lower temperature. These materials present nanosize particles with high surface area. They find application in many industrial areas such as Lithium ions batteries and catalysis.
Materials under study: Oxides based on vanadium, Tin oxide, and titanium oxide. These materials are analyzed and characterized by different techniques such as: Powder X-ray diffraction. Thermal analysis (TG, DSC, DTA) Spectroscopy (FTIR., UV). Scanning and Transmission Electron Microscope (SEM with EDAX and TEM).
Muhammad S. Khan
My research interest is in the area of conjugated polymers.  In particular, my group is interested in the design and development of a new class of organometallic polymers known as poly metalla-ynes (PMYs) and their organic analogues, poly arylene ethynylenes (PAEs). Metal-catalyzed cross-coupling, dehydrohalogenation and poly condensation reactions under inert atmosphere followed by chromatography and fractional precipitation are used for the synthesis and processing of  the new materials.  IR, UV-Vis, ¹H, ¹³C, ³¹P NMR, EI & FAB MS and GPC techniques are routinely used for materials characterization.  Single crystal X-ray analysis of model compound elucidates structure/property relationships in the polymers.  Optical absorption (OA), photoluminescence (PL), photo induced absorptions (PIA), lifetime measurements, time-resolved measurements are used to investigate photo-physical properties of the materials. The MPYs and PAEs possess intriguing opto-electronic (O-E) properties useful for application in emerging high technologies, such as field-effect transistors (FETs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs). We are interested in exploring the O-E applications of the conjugated polymers. Crystallographic, photo-physical and O-E facilities are accessed through strong international collaborations.
Muna R. Al-Mandhary
My research interest is in the area of coordination chemistry.  In particular, I am interested in the design and synthesis of new heterocyclic compounds and their transition metal complexes. Of interest is metallosupramolecular chemistry which is the controlled self-assembly of metallosupramolecular species. For example, ligands of general structure 1 (Fig. 1) comprising of a number of heterocyclic donor groups linked by flexible spacers (X) to a central arene core have been synthesized.

Fig.1. General representation of (1) of a diverse library of ligands
By systematically varying the number of arms, the specific heterocycle, the nature of the linking groups and the type of arene core, ligands with a diverse range of properties have been generated. Metallosupramolecular materials were synthesized by reacting the ligands with various metal ions [Ni(II), Co(II), Cu(II), Ag(I), Pd(II) and Fe(II)], in which the ligands adopted various bonding modes depending on the steric requirement of the metal ion and the donor atoms involved in the coordination.  Of interest also are some physiochemical properties of such complexes such as spin-crossover and liquid crystal properties.
A variety of techniques are applied to characterize the new ligands and their metal complexes.  This includes elemental analysis, FTIR, ¹H and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy and mass spectrometry.  U.V./visible spectroscopy is used to study the electronic transitions in the complexes and cyclic voltammetry to investigate the possibility of electronic communication between the metal centers in polymetallic complexes.  The three-dimensional structure of the ligands and the metal complexes are established by single crystal X-ray crystallography.  As the ligands are capable of adopting various bonding modes, this technique determines the mode adopted in the complexes formed.  X-ray crystallography can also reveal spin cross-over in Fe(II) complexes as the Fe(II)-donor atom bond length is sensitive to the spin-state.  ⁵⁷Fe Mossbauer spectroscopy (MS) is a powerful tool for identifying and characterizing spin transitions in Fe(II) complexes in the solid state.  This technique can clearly and easily distinguish between the high-spin and low-spin states of Fe(II).  Magnetic susceptibility measurements are also used to follow spin-transitions over a temperature range.
Musa Shongwe
The physicochemical coordination chemistry of the bioactive first-row transition metals is the focal point of my current interest. The recognition of the potential technological applicability of electronically bistable substances as materials for information storage, molecular switches and visual displays in molecule-based electronics has provided fresh impetus in the design, syntheses and development of molecular spin-crossover materials. By virtue of its propensity to exhibit readily accessible multiple oxidation states and spin states under ambient conditions and being at the redox centres of a diverse range of metalloenzymes, iron is an exciting prime candidate for spin-crossover research; indeed there is growing widespread interest in iron spin-crossovers. My research group is particularly interested in creating spin-crossover systems with potential applications in biochemistry. Pertinent physical techniques of characterization of the spin conversions include variable-temperature single-crystal X-ray analyses, magnetic susceptibility measurements, electron spin resonance (ESR) spectroscopy and Mössbauer spectroscopy. Work in my research laboratory also extends to coordination complexes of vanadium, manganese, cobalt and copper as antimicrobial materials as well as structural, spectroscopic and functional models for certain biological systems.
Salama B. Salama
Studies of weak complexes of sulfur and selenium compounds and the role of the solvents on the stability of the complexes.
Studies of:
Analytical methods of trace analysis of metals and non-metals.
Solute-solvent and solvent-solvent interactions.
Raman Spectroscopy of Inorganic compound.
Photoelectrochemical studies of inorganic anions.
Kinetic studies of oxidation of amino acids by transition metal complexes.

Organic Chemistry

Hamad H. Al Mamari
Development and application of new reactions methods in organic synthesis. The total synthesis of natural products that exhibit biological activity and/or of medicinal interest.
Hisham Abdul-Khader
Natural Product Chemistry: Isolation and characterization of secondary metabolites from medicinal plants.
Extensive application of various 1D and 2D NMR techniques and Mass spectroscopy in the structure elucidation of natural products.
Application of various Chromatographic techniques (both normal and reverse Phase) including Gel Permeation Chromatography (GPC) in the isolation and purification of Natural Products.
Majekodunmi O. Fatope
Medicinal plants in Oman are investigated for wound-healing, pest-control substances, and fragrant oils or hydrosols. Lesser-known edible wild plants are studied for antioxidants, and also fungal taxa are investigated for antibiotics. Extracts of plants or laboratory cultures of fungal strains are subjected to “bioactivity-driven isolation” protocols using antimicrobial, brine shrimp lethality test, nematicidal and antioxidant assays as guides. The isolated components of the extracts are structurally elucidated by spectroscopic methods and further tested against clinically important bacteria and dermatophytes. Essential oils from the lesser-known fragrant plants are analyzed by GC-MS, GC-FID and 13C-NMR and tested for odor pleasantness, antimicrobial, crop protection properties against aphids, root-knot nematodes and economically important fungal pathogens of food crops
Saleh N. Al-Busafi
Isolation, structural elucidation, and synthesis of natural products; and evaluation of antioxidant activities of natural products.
Wajdi M. Zoghaib
Synthesis and use of model base pair analogues for tautomerization studies in DNA and its role in biological mutagenesis.
Structure-activity relation correlation of potential antiviral molecules.
Synthesis of novel liquid crystals.

Physical Chemistry

Ashraf T. Al-Hinai
My research interests are mainly in the area of corrosion and protection. Studies are not limited to electrochemical measurements, but also include modeling and theoretical calculations. In addition to that, corrosion research is taken a step forward. Classical issues like passivation and oxide formation are revisited from the material science point of view where they used to synthesize micro and nano size particles.
Emad Khudaish
One of my current research interests is to utilize the efficiency of electrochemical methods in studying the kinetics and thermodynamics of environmental and industrial species such as hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen peroxide, phenols and heavy metals in aqueous solutions. Chemically Modified Electrodes (CME) are used widely as catalytic and sensing tools to study the above relevant environmental species. These electrodes can be prepared by the attachment of a catalytic species (organic or inorganic) at the surface of a base electrode. The properties and electrochemical activities of CME are highly influenced by the nature of the adsorbed species and the electrode surface morphology. Currently, vanadium pentoxide, bismuth nucleation and platinum (II) di‑yne complex are used for electrode surface modification to study H₂S, Cd²⁺ and Pb²⁺, and phenols, respectively.
John Husband
My current research interests are centered on the measurement of nonlinear optical properties of organometallic poly-ynes synthesized locally within the chemistry department. Such polymers offer the potential of being suitable materials for the optical circuitry needed to replace semiconductor-based electrical circuitry which is fast reaching the limits of its performance in terms of speed and miniaturization.
A novel interferometric technique for measuring third-order susceptibilities has been developed and has yielded very promising initial results. To complement theses studies, ab initio calculations of the second hyperpolarizability of the repeat unit within the poly-yne, have been performed.
A second line of research recently started involves the development and testing of new advanced physical chemistry labs which can be incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum.
Mohamed Aoudia
My principle area of research is surface and colloidal chemistry. In particular, we are interested on surfactant systems and their applications in new emerging technologies such as enhanced oil recovery and water treatment. Both applied and fundamental studies are carried out in our laboratory. Experimental techniques such as molecular spectroscopy (UV absorption, fluorescence), ultra-low interfacial tension (IFT) measurements in reservoir conditions, surfactant adsorption on reservoir rock, core flooding to estimate oil recovery are routinely utilized in our research.
Osama Abou-Zied
One of the classic problems of physical chemistry is the interactions of probe molecules with the surrounding medium. It has long been known that solvents exert a profound influence on chemical systems. Recently the role of solvation in biological systems has been recognized, for example, the importance of hydrophobic interactions in processes such as protein folding. Our interest is focusing on searching and testing the spectroscopy of novel biological probes that may be used to understand certain mechanisms in DNA and proteins which lead to mutations. The study is carried out in solution, nanocavities of cyclodextrins and in selected biological systems. The aim of the research is to explore how the changes in the internal biological environment cause errors in transferring the genetic codes and hence cause mutations. We use such spectroscopic techniques as absorption (uv/vis), fluorescence, NMR and lifetime measurements in the picosecond to nanosecond regime. Molecular Dynamics simulation and ab initio methods are used to predict the geometries of the potential probes inside the biological systems and the nanocavities of cyclodextrins.

 

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