Benjamin Harvey

Terpenes are ubiquitous natural products that can be obtained from sources including crude sulfate turpentine (byproduct of paper production), gum turpentine, and plant extracts…

To help address combat diminishing supplies of fossil fuels, our group studied the synthesis of sustainable aviation fuels (SAFs) from the terpene alcohol, linalool…

Low-valent Ln(II) and An(II) have been isolated and characterized in solid-state complexes…

Iron-catalyzed cycloaddition of unactivated dienes is a powerful method for the synthesis of fuels, elastomers, and unique small molecules…

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used for various industrial applications for many years. The strong C-C and C-F bonds found in PFAS make them ideal for heat-resistant applications and their strong hydrophobicity makes them ideal for water-resistant coatings…

Oxime functional groups are present in compounds used for manufacturing, medicinal, and defense applications. Due to their prevalent nature, the accelerated formation of product is desirable…

Metallocene-derived single molecular magnets (SMMs) have proven to be some of the highest performing magnets to date…

The development of quantum information sciences (QIS) shows promise for applications in sensing, communication, and computing if one can generate controllable quantum objects, or “qubits…

Naturally occurring phenolic compounds are a diverse class of molecules that offer structural motifs not commonly found in petroleum-derived monomers…

The production of full-performance, low-cost sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) requires innovative catalytic approaches to hydrocarbon synthesis. In particular, methods that combine high carbon efficiency and low energy input are aligned with the precepts of a sustainable circular economy…

Short chain polyols can be efficiently produced from biomass sources through fermentation. These molecules can then serve as platform chemicals for the synthesis of sustainable fuels and polymers…

Most commercial flame-retardant polymers incorporate metals, phosphates, or halogens to increase char yields and generate chemical species that will quench fires…

Replacing petroleum-based polymers with bio-based, recyclable, and upcycled polymer materials has been proposed as an important step in the development of a sustainable circular economy…

Isoprenol and isoprenyl acetate are platform chemicals that can be efficiently produced from biomass sources via fermentation. Currently, isoprenyl acetate can be generated at higher titer than isoprenol due to its lower toxicity to microorganisms and lower water solubility…

Bioengineered enzymes have been known to break down waste into predictable platform molecules. Biochemical production of relevant feedstock chemicals is contemporarily mature enough to represent a viable approach to synthesizing energetics and its precursors…

Isoprenol and isoprenyl acetate can be produced directly from abundant biomass sources via fermentation, while 3-methyltetrahydrofuran can be produced from the valorization of biosynthetic mesaconic or itaconic acid…

As researchers further develop libraries of bespoke biosynthetic jet fuel components, it becomes possible to investigate structure/property relationships of fuel molecules and produce optimized blends…

Boron nitride is a readily available material which has recently become a topic of interest in photocatalytic remediation of poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)…

Polyurethanes are a versatile class of polymers formed by the reaction between polyols and isocyanates…

A major drawback of current high-temperature thermoset formulations are their small processing windows, complex cure protocols, and brittle network structures. To overcome this limitation we developed a new class of bio-based processable benzoxazines (BOXs)…

Many conventional aerospace composites and polycarbonate plastics are based on petroleum-derived phenolic compounds (e.g., bisphenol A [BPA])…