» Asefa Research Group » Curriculum Vitae		Tewodros (Teddy) Asefa  Assistant Professor Materials chemistry; nanoscience and nanotechnology; inorganic chemistry; nanobiomaterials tasefa@syr.edu phone: 315-443-3360 / fax: 315-443-4070 Office: CST 1-048 Education: • B.Sc., 1992, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia • M.Sc., 1996-1998, University of Delaware and   the State University of New York at Buffalo • Ph.D., 2002, University of Toronto • Postdoctoral Fellow, 2002-2003, University of Toronto • Postdoctoral Fellow, 2003-2005, McGill University Honors & Awards: • Fulbright Fellow, 1996-1998 • University of Toronto Open Fellowships, 1999-2002 • Miller Fellowship Nominee, University of California at Berkeley, 2002 • NSF CAREER Award, 2007-2012 Courses: • CHE 103: Chemistry in the Modern World (Non-Science Majors) • CHE 116*: General Chemistry Lecture, Part II • CHE 117: General Chemistry Laboratory, Part II • CHE 129: Honors General Chemistry, Part I • CHE 600: Nanoscience & Nanotechnology / Materials Chemistry (Modular Graduate Course) • New General Chemistry Tutorial Program - Launched • Outreach Activities   * denotes current Spring '08 course

Research Interests The primary research activities in my group focus on the design, synthesis, and self-assembly of novel inorganic and organic-inorganic hybrid nanostructured and nanoporous materials and nanobiomaterials. Our materials are typically chosen to have multifunctional groups as well as novel structures at the nanometer scale. Uncovering the structure-property relationships as well as the potential applications of these materials for catalysis, nanoelectronics, separations, and sensing is also part of our research program. Specific areas of interest: (1) Nanoparticles and core-shell nanoparticles with novel structures and multifunctional groups: The properties of nanomaterials whose sizes are only a few billionths of a meter have unique properties that are neither bulk nor molecular and can be tuned via the size, shape, and structure of the materials. We are interested in the synthesis and self-assembly of inorganic and composite nanoparticles and core-shell nanoparticles having novel structures. By introducing multifunctional organic, organometallic, or biological groups into such nanostructured materials, we can create new classes of nanomaterials with unprecedented and potentially useful properties for nanoelectronics, sensing, biological imaging, and targeted drug delivery.
(2) Nanoporous and mesoporous nanowire materials: The bottom-up synthesis of nanostructured and mesoporous materials using templates can create various new classes of nanomaterials. Our research in this area focuses on the combination of "hard templates" with "self-assembly" to produce nanowires and nanorods having nanoporous and mesoporous structures and frameworks. We will also investigate the potential of these materials for host-guest inclusion and for separation of various biological and chemical species for environmental remediation purposes. (3) Multifunctional self-assembled monolayers: Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on various substrates have potential for several technological applications. Our research deals with the synthesis of multifunctional SAM structures using functionalized organosilanes and alkane thiols. We are interested in the fundamental self-assembly studies of these multifunctional molecules on various substrates as well as the potential of such SAM structures for nanopatterning of molecular electronic devices and for catalysis and sensing applications.	Multifunctional nanostructured materials
Selected Publications Sharma, K. K.; Buckley, R. P.; Asefa, T. "Polymerization of 1,4-Diethynylbenzene by Highly Efficient Heterogeneous Copper Catalyst Supported on Nanoporous Materials" 2008, In Preparation. Wang, G.; Blair, E. A.; Otuonye, A.; Asefa, T.* "Multifunctional Mesoporous Materials for Controlled Chemical and Drug Release" 2008, In Preparation. Sharma, K. K.; Buckley, R. P.; Asefa, T.* "Optimizing Cooperative Acid-Base Bifunctional Mesoporous Catalysts for the Henry Reaction: Effects of Separation Distance of Site-Isolated Groups on Cooperative Catalysis" 2008, Submitted. Shi, Y.-L.; Asefa, T.* "Corrugated Nanospheres and Nanocages: Synthesis via Controlled Etching and Improving Chemical Delivery and Electrochemical and Biosensing Applications" 2008, Submitted. Anan, A.; Vathyam, R.; Asefa, T.* "Controlling the Henry Reaction Products: Nitroalcohol versus Nitrostyrene by Simple Change of Amino-Groups of Aminofunctionalized Mesoporous Catalysts" 2008, Submitted. Xie, Y.; Quinlivan, S.; Asefa, T.* "Tuning Metal Nanostructures within SBA-15 by Changing Metal Complexes Reduced In-situ with Grafted Imines and Hemiaminals" J. Phys. Chem. C., 2008, In Press. Tao, Z.; Morrow, M. P.; Sharma, K. K.; Duncan, C.; Anan, A.; Asefa, T.; Penefsky, H. S.; Goodisman, J.*, Kader, A.* "Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Inhibit Cellular Respiration" Nano Lett., 2008, In Press (DOI: 10.1021/nl080250u) Anan, A.; Sharma, K. K.; Asefa, T.* "Selective Efficient Trifunctional Nanoporous Catalysts for Nitroaldol Condensation: Co-Placement of Site-Isolated Multiple Functional Groups on Mesoporous Materials" J. Molecular Catal. A, 2008, In Press (Chosen as an Editor's Choice Article). Sharma, K. K.; Anan, A.; Buckley, R. P.; Ouellette, W.; Asefa, T.* "Towards Efficient Nanoporous Catalysts: Controlling Site-Isolation and Concentration of Grafted Catalytic Sites on Nanoporous Materials with Solvents and Colorimetric Elucidation of their Site-Isolation" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2008, 130, 218-228. Asefa, T.*; Sharma, K. K.; Anan, A.; Vathyam, R.; Buckley, R. P.; Dam, H. M.; Xie, Y.; Quinlivan, S.; Wang, G.; Duncan, C. "Efficient and Selective Nanoporous Catalysts by Placing Multiple Site-Isolated Functional Groups on Mesoporous Materials" invited chapter In "Nanoporous Materials" (A. Sayari and M. Jaroniec, eds.), World Scientific Publ. Co., Singapore, 2008, pp. 497-508. Di Pasqua, A. J.; Sharma, K. K.; Shi, Y.-L.; Toms, B. B.; Ouellette, W.; Dabrowiak, J. C.*, Asefa, T.* "Cytotoxicity of mesoporous silica nanomaterials" J. Inorg. Biochem., 2008, In Press (doi:10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2007.12.028) Asefa, T. "Spherical & Anisotropic Non-Magnetic Core-shell Nanomaterials - Synthesis and Characterization" Invited Chapter in a Book "Non Magnetic Bi-Metallic and Metal Oxide Nanomaterials for Life Sciences", Wiley-VCH, Volume 3, 2008, In Press. Asefa, T. "Functionalized Nanoporous and Mesoporous Heterogeneous Catalysts – New Synthetic Strategies and Applications" Invited Chapter in a Book "Heterogeneous Catalysis Research Progress", Nova Publishers, New York, 2008, In Press. Otuonye, A.; Asefa, T.* "Efficient and Selective Nanoscale Catalysts by Solvent-Assisted Site-Isolated Grafting (SASIG) of Multiple Functional Groups on Mesoporous Materials" Chemtracts, 2007, 20, 85-93. Sharma, K. K.; Asefa, T.* "Efficient bifunctional nanocatalysts by simple postgrafting of spatially-isolated catalytic groups on mesoporous materials" Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2007, 46, 2879-2882. Shi, Y.-L.; Asefa, T.* "Tailored core-shell-shell nanostructures: Sandwiching gold nanoparticles between silica cores and tunable silica shells" Langmuir, 2007, 23, 9455-9462. (Among the Top Ten Most Accessed Articles in 2007). Asefa, T.*; Shi, Y.-L. "Super-stable high-quality Fe3O4 dendron-nanocrystals dispersible in both organic and aqueous solutions" Chemtracts, 2006, 19, 299-305. Asefa, T.; Lennox, R. B. "Synthesis of gold nanoparticles via electroless deposition in SBA-15." Chem. Mater., 2005, 17, 2481-2483. Asefa, T.; Kruk, M.; Coombs, N.; Grondey, H.; MacLachlan, M. J.; Jaroniec, M.; Ozin, G. A. "Novel routes to periodic mesoporous aminosilcas (PMAs): ammonolysis of periodic mesoporous organosilicas" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 11662-11673. Asefa, T.; Kruk, M.; MacLachlan, M. J.; Coombs, N.; Grondey, H.; Jaroniec, M.; Ozin, G. A. "Novel bifunctional periodic mesoporous organosilicas, BPMOs: Synthesis, characterization, properties and in-situ selective hydroboration-alcoholysis reactions of functional groups" J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2001, 123, 8520-8530. (Cited over 116 times) Asefa, T.; MacLachlan, M. J.; Coombs, N.; Ozin, G. A. "Periodic mesoporous organosilicas with organic groups inside the channel walls." Nature 1999, 402(6764), 867-871. (Cited over 525 times and Featured in C&EN News in 2000). » View all Publications