Karla McCain
Ohio Wesleyan University, B.A. 1998
University of Utah, Ph.D. 2003
Austin College, Assistant professor of chemistry, 2003-
Courses
Chemistry 101 - Environmental Chemistry
Research
For the last few years, I have been using FT-IR spectroscopy to investigate bisurea organogelators which are synthesized by my collaborator, Dr. Andy Carr, also at Austin College. My students and I have been developing FT-IR methods to determine the degree of hydrogen bonding between the urea groups and the relative number of conformational defects in the alkyl tails.
This spectroscopic approach has allowed us to examine the effect of such variables as organogelator molecular structure and concentration on organogel order and organization.
We have also recently begun to use FT-IR spectroscopy to examine the kinetics of organogelation in these systems and are beginning temperature controlled studies to investigate their thermodynamic properties.
Austin College is a liberal arts college dedicated to undergraduate research and I have had the pleasure of working with 11 students on these projects. Undergraduate research provides students with an incredible opportunity for intellectual growth and to build close relationships with faculty. The chemistry department at Austin College has held a departmental grant from the Welch Foundation which supports a summer research program for over 20 years.
My students have had the opportunity to present their work at the national and regional level and appear as co-authors on peer-reviewed publications.
List of Publications and Presentations
* denotes undergraduate researcher
Publications
K.S. McCain; J.M. Harris "Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy Study of Molecular Transport in Thin Sol-Gel Films" Anal. Chem. 2003, 75, 3616-3624.
K.S. McCain; D.C. Hanley; J.M. Harris "Interpreting Single Molecule Trajectories Applied to Investigating Spatial Heterogeneity in Sol-Gel Films" Anal. Chem. 2003, 75, 4351-4359.
K.S. McCain; P. Schluesche*; J.M. Harris "Modifying the Adsorption Behavior of PAMAM Dendrimers at Silica Surfaces Investigated by Total-Internal-Reflection Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy" Anal. Chem. 2004, 76, 930-938.
K.S. McCain; P. Schluesche*; J.M. Harris "PAMAM Dendrimers as Nanoscale Diffusion Probes in Sol-Gel Films Investigated by Total-Internal-Reflection Fluorescence Spectroscopy" Anal. Chem. 2004, 76, 939-946.
A.M Pierce*; P.J. Maslanka*; A.J. Carr; K.S. McCain "Using FT-IR to Examine Structure in Bisurea Organogels" accepted for publication in Appl. Spec. in April 2007 issue..
Presentations
D. Rivera; K.S. McCain; J.M. Harris "Silica_Coated Internal Reflection Elements for the Study of Molecular Adsorption, Binding, and Transport in Sol_Gel Materials" 2000 Pittsburgh Conference, New Orleans, March 15, 2000.
J.M. Harris; D. Rivera; K.S. McCain "Internal Reflection Spectroscopy Studies of Retention Mechanisms and Chromatographic Interfaces" 24th International Symposium on High Performance Liquid Phase Separations, Seattle, June 27, 2000.
K. S. McCain; J. M. Harris "Examining Molecular Transport through Sol-gel Films by Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy" 2000 meeting of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, Nashville, September 24, 2000.
K.S. McCain; D.C. Hanley; J.M. Harris "Observing Molecular Transport in Thin Sol-gel Films by Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence Spectroscopy" invited talk at 2001 Southeast Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Savannah, September 24, 2001.
J.M. Harris; D. Rivera; K.S. McCain; D.L. Hanley "Silica-Coated Internal-Reflection Elements for Studies of Molecular Adsorption, Binding, and Interfacial Transport in Sol-Gel Materials" Symposium on Spectroscopy at Interfaces, Symposium on Spectroscopy at Interfaces, 2001 meeting of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, Detroit, October, 10, 2001.
J.M. Harris; D.L. Hanley; M.L. Houlne; K.S. McCain; C.J. Sjostrom* "Spectroscopic Characterization of Nanomaterials at the Single-Particle and Single-Molecule Level" Symposium on Analytical Chemistry of Nanomaterials, 2002 Pittsburgh Conference, New Orleans, March 18, 2002.
J.M. Harris; D.L. Hanley; K.S. McCain; P. Schleusche* "Studies of Labeling and Transport in Sol-Gel Materials using Single-Molecule Fluorescence Spectroscopy" Symposium on Single-Molecule Detection, 2002 meeting of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, Providence, October 14, 2002.
K.S. McCain; P. Schluesche*; J.M. Harris "Dye_Labeled PAMAM Dendrimers as Nanoscale Diffusion Probes in Sol_Gel Films" invited talk at 2002 meeting of the Federation of Analytical Chemistry and Spectroscopy Societies, Providence, October 15, 2002.
K.S. McCain; P. Schluesche*; J.M. Harris "Modifying the Adsorption of PAMAM Dendrimers by End Group Derivitization for Use as Nanoscale Diffusion Probes" invited talk at 2003 Spring National Meeting of the American Chemical Society, New Orleans, March 23-27.
A.G. Newton*; K.S. McCain "Vibrational Spectroscopy of Humic Acids" 2004 meeting of the Society of Western Analytical Professors, Salt Lake City, January 16-17.
L.Hinkle*; K.S. McCain "pH Dependent Humic Acid/Metal Binding Investigated by Fourier Transform Attenuated Total Reflectance Infrared Spectroscopy" 2004 Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Ft. Worth, September 2, 2004.
L. Hinkle*; K.S. McCain "Using ATR-FTIR Spectroscopy to Investigate Humic Acid/Metal Binding Equilibria" 2005 meeting of the Society of Western Analytical Professors, Ft. Collins, January 14-15, 2005.
C.B. Grissom; R.A. Horton; K.S. McCain; J.M. Harrris "Intracellullar Trafficking of Enzymatic Cofactors: Visualizing Cobalamin at the Single-Molecule Limit" American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Meeting, San Diego, April 4, 2005.
K.S. McCain; A.J. Carr; A.M. Pierce*; J. Tai* "Kinetics of Gel Formation for a C22 Tailed Bis-urea Organogelator Examined by FTIR" 2006 Pittsburg Conference Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Orlando, March 12-17, 2006.
A.M. Pierce*, K.S. McCain "Determining Structural Order in Bis-urea Organogellators by FTIR" 2006 Pittsburg Conference Analytical Chemistry and Applied Spectroscopy, Orlando, March 12-17, 2006.
C.M. Barnes*, J.L. Gray*, A.J. Carr, K.S., McCain "Examining the Effect of Tail Length on Bisurea Organogel Structure Using FT-IR" 2006 Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Houston, October 20, 2006.
J.L.Gray*, C.M. Barnes*, A.J. Carr, K.S., McCain "Systematic Study of Hydrogen Bonding in Model Urea Compounds using FT-IR" 2006 Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Houston, October 20, 2006.
J.M. Cohen, T.D. Talamentes, A.M. Pierce, J. Tai, A.J. Carr "Examining Gelation Kinetics in a C22-tailed Bisurea Organogelator by FT-IR" 2006 Southwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society, Houston, October 20, 2006.