Eddie Luzik, Ph.D.
Chemistry and Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Department
Tagliatela College of Engineering Chemistry and Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Department
Education
B.S. in Science – Pennsylvania State University
Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry – Bryn Mawr College
Postdoctoral Research – University of Toledo
Postdoctoral Teaching – Haverford College
Sabbatical Research – Yale University
About Eddie
Dr. Luzik joined the University of New Haven in January 2000. He specializes in teaching Organic Chemistry lecture and laboratory and Synthetic Chemistry. He has also taught Environmental Chemistry, CH600, and General Chemistry CH115&117 Lab. He is the contact person for operating and maintaining much of the departments’ instrumentation including the GCs, HPLCs, GC/MS, UV/vis, and XRD. Prior to teaching at the University of New Haven, he taught General and Environmental Chemistry courses at Haverford College, near Philadelphia, and Introductory Chemistry at Harrisburg Area Community College in Lebanon Pennsylvania. He also has worked in industry, quantitating organic substances in environmental samples using instrumental methods, an experience that contributes to his courses and research.
Dr. Luzik’s research interests include studies of: the properties and the synthesis of substituted polycyclic aromatic molecules, fluorinated molecules, and green process chemistry. Extensive use of gas chromatography, mass spectroscopy, and ultra violet / visible spectroscopy instrumentation facilitates this work. Current research work is targeted at Green Chemistry and Organic Synthesis: experiments performed by undergraduate students in the laboratories at the University of New Haven are evaluating ozone friendly chemicals for replacement of chlorinated solvents used in chemical processes, screening catalysts for new reaction development, and building new chiral templates. Other projects include synthesis of polycyclic and olefinic aromatic molecules which often have useful optical properties; also, semi-organics’ synthesis for similar material-science properties and applications research. A selection of molecules from his portfolio of prior syntheses are depicted in the figure below.
Applications driven studies of diffuse-sourced Biofuels have recently attracted much attention to his research group. Work on Bio-diesel production and evaluation is also progressing toward incorporating an educational component into the Organic Laboratory curriculum. With University of New Haven students he is pursuing development of new, modernized, low environmental impact and inherently safer educational laboratory experiments. The target is to allow University of New Haven undergraduates to fully utilize the department’s renovated facilities and new instrumentation for a high quality educational experience.
Dr. Luzik has helped design the recently renovated laboratory spaces at the University of New Haven, with the new Organic Lab providing a state of the art facility with each student work space outfitted comparably to a pharmaceutical or custom synthesis occupational scenario. He is also working to bring more extensive use of the department’s Instrumentation into all of the chemistry lab curricula, and to teach Quality Assessment and Good Laboratory Practices methodology for University of New Haven students to be best prepared for their scientific careers.
Personal interests include: mineralogy, art, figure skating, construction skills, and Chrysler vehicles. He is a member of the American Chemical Society: Division of Organic Chemistry and Division of Fluorine Chemistry, Sigma Xi – The Research Society, the United States Figure Skating Association, and the New Haven Mineral Club.
Recent Publications
Shuman, N.S.; Miller, T.M.; Viggiano, A.A.; Luzik, E.D. Jr.,; Hazari, N. "Kinetics of electron attachment to SF3CN, SF3C6F5, and SF3 and mutual neutralization of Ar+ with CN- and C6F5(-)."J Chem Phys.2011, 134(4).
James D. Blakemore, Matthew J. Chalkley, Joy H. Farnaby, Louise M. Guard, Nilay Hazari, Christopher D. Incarvito, Eddie D. Luzik, Jr., and Hee Won Suh; "New Trans-Chelating N-Heterocyclic Carbene Ligands for Palladium" Organometallics, 2011, 30 (7), pp 1818–1829.
Nicholas S. Shuman, Thomas M. Miller, Nilay Hazari, Eddie D. Luzik Jr., and A. A. Viggiano "Kinetics following addition of sulfur fluorides to a weakly ionized plasma from 300 K to 500 K: Rate constants and product determinations for ion-ion mutual neutralization and thermal electron attachment to SF5, SF3, and SF2-" Journal of Chemical Physics, 133, 234304, 2010.
Khoo, Nai-Chuan; Sinha, Saion; Luzik, Eddie; Rivas-Cardona, Juan Alberto; "Simple inexpensive technique for the synthesis of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube films by Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD)" Submitted.
Sinha, Saion; Khoo, Nai-Chuan; Luzik, Eddie; "Proceedings from the International Conference on Thin Films" October, 2006.
Gano, J. E.; Osborn, D. J.III.; Kodali, N.; Sekher, P.; Luzik, E. D.; Kodali, N.
"Synthesis of Twist-twist
Pi-Conjugated Di-sec-alkyl Stilbenes and Stilbene Polymers", Journal of Organic Chemistry
, 2003, 68, 3710-3713.
Frank B. Mallory, Kelly E. Butler, Amelie Berube, Eddie D. Luzik Jr., Clelia W. Mallory, Emilie J. Brondyke, Rupa Hiremath, Phung Ngo, and Patrick J. Carrol. "Phenacenes: a family of graphite ribbons. Part 3: Iterative strategies for the synthesis of large phenacenes". Tetrahedron 2001, 57, 3715-3724.
Mallory, F. B.; Luzik, E. D. et. al. "Nuclear Spin - Spin Coupling via Nonbonded Interactions-8. The Distance Dependence of Through-Space Fluorine-Fluorine Coupling", Journal of the American Chemical Society , 2000, 122(17), 4108-4116.
O’Connell, C.; Sekher, P.; Luzik, E. D.; Gano, J. E. "Thermochemical Studies of Twist-twist Pi Conjugated, Sterically Crowded Stilbenes Using Simultaneous TG-DTA", Thermochem. Acta, 1999, 340-414, 263-269.
Gano, J. E.; Luzik, E. D.; Sekher, P. "1,4-Di(1,2-di-tert-butyl-2-phenyl ethynyl) benzene and Related Twist-twist Pi Conjugated Stilbene (PPV) Systems", Tetrahedron Letters, 1998, 39, 6641-6644.
Sekher, P.; Gano, J. E.; Luzik, E. D. "Iodination of E-2,2,5,5,-tetramethyl-3,4-diphenylhex-3-ene: Catalytic Effects of Silver Triflate and Water in the I2/Ag2SO4 Iodination", Synthetic Communications,1997, 27, 3631-3636.
Courses Taught
- CH 341 Synthetic Methods
- CH 201, CH 202, CH 203, CH 204 Organic Chemistry Series