Nathan Hammer
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Phone Number: (662)915-3989
Email: nhammer@olemiss.edu
http://www.thehammerlab.com/

Key Words: Spectroscopy, energy and charge transfer, physical properties and structure of single molecules and small clusters of molecules and ions

Research Description: When molecules interact noncovalently through hydrogen bonding or other electrostatic interactions, pi-pi interactions, or Van der Waals forces, their physical properties change. Although intermolecular interactions have received much attention recently at the ensemble level, the study of individual dimers, trimers and larger clusters (as well as binary and higher level interactions with other species) to reveal the intimate interactions leading to the bulk observables remains for the most part elusive. Here, we study the physical properties of interacting molecules in environments ranging from the single molecule to the bulk. Our spectroscopic capabilities include high resolution Raman spectroscopy of bulk materials, the study of size-selected clusters and aggregates in the gas phase using a mass spectrometer, and the use of single molecule techniques such as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy and other laser-based spectroscopies to study single interacting molecular architectures. Such studies help answer long-standing questions involving the effects of intermolecular interactions on biologically relevant systems and also in developing devices incorporating conjugated organic molecules, to name a few examples. These studies will also allow for the tailoring of new nanoscale building blocks that would have physical properties dependent upon the number of molecules present.

Undergraduate students in the Hammer Research Group study how molecules interact with each other using laser-based spectroscopy and computational chemistry. Dr. Hammer has directed the research of over 85 undergrads. Of these, at least 35 have been members of the UM Honors College and two, Austin Howard and Genevieve Verville, had their theses selected from the 100+ written and defended by UM Honors seniors as the most outstanding honors theses of the year. Genevieve even received the National Portz Scholarship, recognizing the top four theses nationally. From 2010 on, over 30 instances of high school or undergrad authorship have resulted from over 20 different publications, 12 of which featured high school (Charles Hutchison) or undergrad students as first author, and four that have been featured on journal covers. Prof. Hammer also publishes original PCHEM lab experiments in the J. of Chem. Ed. and The Chem. Educ. Hammer undergrad student presentations (including nine oral) have been given at state, regional, national, and international conferences since 2010. Although many of Prof. Hammer’s undergraduate researchers attend medical school after graduation at the UM Medical Center in Jackson, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Tulane, etc., others have gone on to graduate programs at schools including Johns Hopkins, Vanderbilt, Temple, Princeton, Georgia, or stayed at UM. Two female undergrads (Anna Hailey, 2010 and Dana Reinemann, 2012) received Barry M. Goldwater scholarships.

Example papers with undergraduate co-authors:

G. A. Verville, H. K. Byrd, A. Kamischke, S. A. Smith, D. H. Magers, N. I. Hammer, “Raman Spectroscopic and Quantum Chemical Investigation of the Effects of Tri-methylamine N-oxide (TMAO) on Hydrated Guanidinium and Hydrogen-Bonded Water Networks,” Journal of Raman Spectroscopy, 52, 788-795 (2021). DOI: 10.1002/jrs.6061

S. N. Johnson, C. R. Hutchison, C. Williams, C. L. Hussey, G. S. Tschumper and N. I. Hammer, “Intermolecular interactions and vibrational perturbations within 1-ethyl-3-methlimidazolium thiocyanate / water mixtures,” Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 122, 27673 (2018). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b07114

S. G. Zetterholm, G. A. Verville, L. Boutwell, C. Boland, J. C. Prather, J. Bethea, J. Cauley, K. Warren, S. A. Smith, D. H. Magers, N. I. Hammer, “Noncovalent Interactions between Tri-methylamine N-oxide (TMAO), Urea, and Water,” Journal of Physical Chemistry B, 122, 8805 (2018). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.8b04388

L. E. McNamara, T. A. Rill, A. J. Huckaba, V. Ganeshraj, J. Gayton, R. A. Nelson, E. A. Sharpe, A. Dass, N. I. Hammer and J. H. Delcamp, “Indolizine-Squaraines: NIR Fluorescent Materials with Molecular Engineered Stokes Shifts,” Chemistry - A European Journal (2017). DOI: 10.1002/chem.201702209

T. L. Ellington, P. L. Reves, B. L. Simms, J. L. Wilson, D. L. Watkins, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer, “Quantifying the effects of halogen bonding by haloaromatic donors on the acceptor pyrimidine,” ChemPhysChem, 18, 1267–1273 (2017). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201700114

S. C. Sutton, W. E. Cleland, Jr., N. I. Hammer, “Introducing Students to a Synthetic and Spectroscopic Study of the Free Radical Chlorine Dioxide,” The Journal of Chemical Education, 94, 515–520 (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00599

J. T. Kelly, A. K. McClellan, L. V. Joe, A. M. Wright, L. T. Lloyd, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer, “Competition between Hydrophilic and Argyrophilic Interactions in Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS),” ChemPhysChem, 17, 2782-2786 (2016). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201600678

N. I. Hammer, S. Sutton, J. Delcamp, and J. D. Graham,   "Photocatalytic Water Splitting and Carbon Dioxide Reduction," Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation, Springer, 2nd Edition, Wei-Yin Chen, Toshio Suzuki, Maximilian Lackner, editors, ISBN: 978-3-319-14408-5.

J. Wilson, J. S. D. Williams, C. Petkovsek, P. Reves, J. Jurss, N. I. Hammer, G. Tschumper, and D. L. Watkins, “Synergistic Effects of Halogen Bond and pi-pi Interactions in Thiophene-based Building Blocks,” RSC Advances, 5, 82544-82548 (2015). DOI: 10.1039/c5Ra16680b

D. J. George and N. I. Hammer, “Studying the Binomial Distribution Using LabVIEW,” Journal of Chemical Education, 92, 389–394 (2015). DOI: 10.1021/ed500684k

E. R. Frey, A. Sygula, N. I. Hammer, “Particle in a Disk: A Spectroscopic and Computational Laboratory Exercise Studying the Nanomolecular Building Block Corannulene,” Journal of Chemical Education, 91, 2186-2190 (2014). DOI: 10.1021/ed4005062

D. N. Reinemann, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer, “Characterizing the B-P Stretching Vibration in Phosphorous Substituted Phosphine Boranes,” ChemPhysChem, 15, 1867-1871 (2014). DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201400036

A. M. Wright, A. A. Howard, J. C. Howard, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer, “Charge Transfer and Blue Shifting of Vibrational Frequencies in a Hydrogen Bond Acceptor,” Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 117, 5435-5446 (2013). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1021/jp401642b

W.-Y. Chen, G. Shi, A. K. Hailey, E. S. T. Tsai, N. I. Hammer, and Z. Wu, "Photocatalytic Conversion of Carbon Dioxide to Organic Compounds Using A Green Photocatalyst: An Undergraduate Research Experiment," The Chemical Educator, 17, 166-171 (2012). DOI: 10.1007/s00897122438

J. D. Graham and N. I. Hammer,   "Photocatalytic Water Splitting and Carbon Dioxide Reduction," Handbook of Climate Change Mitigation, Springer, 2012, pp. 1755-1780. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-7991-9_46 

J. C. Howard, N. I. Hammer, and G. S. Tschumper, "Structures, Energetics and Vibrational Frequency Shifts of Hydrated Pyrimidine," ChemPhysChem, 12, 3262-3273 (2011). DOI: 10.1002/cphc.201100457

D. N. Reinemann, A. M. Wright, J. D. Wolfe, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer,“Vibrational Spectroscopy of N-Methyliminodiacetic Acid(MIDA)-Protected Boronate Ester: Assignment of the B-N Dative Bond Stretching Frequency,” Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 115, 6426-6431 (2011). (Featured on Cover) DOI: 10.1021/jp112016j

D. J. Scardino, A. A. Howard, M. D. McDowell, and N. I. Hammer,“Raman Spectroscopy as the Method of Detection for Constructing a Binary Liquid-Vapor Phase Diagram,” Journal of Chemical Education, 88, 1162-1165 (2011). DOI: 10.1021/ed100016g

A. M. Wright, L. V. Joe, A. A. Howard, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer,“Spectroscopic and Computational Insight into Weak Noncovalent Interactions in Crystalline Pyrimidine,” Chemical Physics Letters, 501, 319-323 (2011). DOI:10.1016/j.cplett.2010.11.046

D. J. Scardino, M. McDowell, J. D. Graham, and N. I. Hammer,“The Multiphoton Ionization Spectrum of Methyl Iodide Revisted: 1.67 - 2.2 eV Excitation,” Journal of Atomic and Molecular Sciences, 2, 93-98 (2011). DOI: 10.4208/jams.010511.011411a

A. A. Howard, G. S. Tschumper, and N. I. Hammer,  "Effects of Hydrogen Bonding on Vibrational Normal Modes of Pyrimidine," Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 114, 6803-6810 (2010). DOI: 10.1021/jp101267w

M. McDowell, A. E. Wright and N. I. Hammer, "Semiconductor Nanocrystals Hybridized with Functional Ligands: New Composite Materials with Tunable Properties," Materials, 3, 614-637 (2010). DOI: 10.3390/ma3010614

Honors Theses:

Wolfe, Trevor James (2022) Effects of Acute Exercise Intensity on Memory: Considerations of Timing and Aerobic Endurance (full text)

Papachrisanthou, Katarina Eve (2022) The Effect of Gelatin pH and Incubation Time on the Size of Nanoparticles Manufactured by Desolvation (full text)

Kruse, Nicholas Allen (2022) Computational and Spectroscopic Studies of New Sulfur-Containing Dipole-Bound Anions (full text)

Baldwin, Margaret (2021) A Spectroscopic and Computational Study of Diacetyl and Water Clusters (full text)

Cannella Jr., William Gregory (2020) Comparison of the Vibrational Modes of Thiolated Gold Nanoparticles Undergoing Core-Conversions Via Raman Spectroscopy (full text)

Sigworth, Kalee (2020) Raman Spectroscopy Study of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol and Cannabidiol and their Hydrogen-Bonding Activities (full text)

Johnson, James (2020) Spectroscopic and Computational Studies of the Agricultural Active Ingredient Dicamba (full text)

Pauly, Kyle Joseph (2020) Study of Pharmaceutical Tablets Using Raman Mapping (full text)

Verville, Genevieve (2020) Raman Spectroscopic and Quantum Chemical Investigation of the Effects of Tri-Methylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) On Hydrated Urea, Hydrated Guanidinium, and Hydrogen Bonded Networks (full text)

Loe, Mallory (2020) A Raman Spectroscopic and Quantum Chemical Investigation of Serotonin, It's Intramolecular Interactions, and the Solvent Effects of Methanol, Ethanol, and Water (full text)

Stratton, Benjamin (2019) Theoretical and Experimental Vibrational Modes of the Borane Pyridine Complex (full text)

Henke, Allyson (2018) An Analysis of Commercial Oxidative Hair Dyes Using Raman Spectroscopy (full text)

Kamischke, Andrew (2018) Raman Spectroscopic and Computational Study of Hydrogen Bond Interactions between Guanidine Hydrochloride, Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), Urea, and Water (full text)

North, John P. (2018) Cell-free telomere DNA as a biomarker for treatment response and tumor burden in Glioblastoma (full text)

Smith, Cameron L. (2018) Studies of Carbonaceous Materials Using Raman Spectroscopy (full text)

Wallace, Leah Alexandra (2018) Studying the Effects of Hydrogen Bonding in 1H-1,2,3-Triazole and Its Derivatives (full text)

Nelson, Rachael Abigayle (2017) Photophysical Characterization of Newly-Synthesized Emissive Materials. (full text)

Sutton, Sarah C. (2017) An Integrative Synthetic, Spectroscopic, and Computational Study of the Free Radical Chlorine Dioxide and its Interactions with Hydrogen Bonded Networks. (full text)

Tramel, Robert (2017) Platelet-Derived Microparticles and their Role in Sepsis. (full text)

Tsang, Lemuel Shui-Lun (2017) Raman Spectroscopic Studies of Novel Gold-Containing Nanomaterials. (full text)

Williams, Ashley Elizabeth (2017) Spectroscopic and Computational Studies of the Hydrogen Bonding Interactions of Hydroxyethyl Ethers. (full text)

Allen, Katelyn (2017) A Raman Spectroscopic and Computational Study on the Effects of Electron Withdrawing Groups on Halogen Bonding. (full text)

Harknett, Gretchen (2017) An Analysis of Stimuli Responsive Biomaterials using Raman Spectroscopy and Computational Studies. (full text)

Prather, John (2015) Non-Covalent Ineteractions of Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) and Urea in Water. (full text)

Reves, Peyton Lindsey (2015) A Raman Spectroscopic and Computational Study of the Effects of Halogen Bonding on Pyrimidine Containing Systems. (full text)

Steen, April Elizabeth (2015) Using Technology to Engage Students in the STEM Field. (full text)

Nicholson, Ashton Thomas (2014) Raman Spectroscopic and Computational Analysis of the Effects of Noncovalent Interactions on DMSO (full text)

Golden, Joseph Wellington (2013) Effects of Micro-Solvation on Room Temperature Ionic Liquids (full text)

McClellan, Annie Katherine (2013) "Spectroscopic Study of Charge Transfer Induced Blue Shifting of Pyrimidine/Water Mixtures on Silver Substrate" (full text)

Craig, Anna (2013) A Raman Spectroscopic Study of the Effects of Hydrogen Bonding on 1,2,3-Triazole. (full text)

Reinemann, Dana Nicole (2012) "Elucidation of B-N and B-P Dative Bond Stretching Vibrations using Raman Spectroscopy and Electronic Structure Calculations" (full text)

McDowell, Matthew Dodd (2011) "Design and Construction of a Reflectron Time of Flight Mass Spectrometer for Multiphoton Ionization and Vibrational Spectroscopic Studies of Mass-Selected Clusters" (full text)

Gregg, Ryan Alexander (2010) Development of a Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectrometer for Lead-Free Gunshot Residue Analysis (full text)

Wolfe, Jonathan Douglas (2010) Developing the Techniques for Raman, Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), and Fluorescence Spectroscopies of Organic Molecules in Isolation (full text)

Howard, Austin Archie (2009) "Upgrade of a Raman Spectometer with Modern Computer Control and Data Acquisition and Its Use in the Study of Hydrogen Bonding of Pyrimidine" (full text)

Available Research Projects:

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