Yosra Badiei, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Chemistry

Headshot of Yosra   Badiei

Contact Info

About Dr. Badiei

Dr. Badiei obtained her Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry in 2009 from Georgetown University in Washington DC and was the recipient of the Harold Glassman Award for Best Dissertation in Sciences in 2010. She further pursued her postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and Brookhaven National Laboratory in NY. She has published many articles in international peer-reviewed journals and presented her worked in various symposia and conferences. Dr. Badiei actively performs research with undergraduate students, and her research interests are in molecular catalysis, inorganic and organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, water-oxidation, electrode fabrication and catalyst immobilization for making sustainable energy fuels. Dr. Badiei is also the co-PI of the NSF Robert NOYCE grant which aims at recruiting and preparing STEM students to pursue a career in teaching K-12. Dr. Badiei is also involved in an NSF HSI STEM grant at Saint Peter’s University which aims at connecting and involving students in career opportunities in industry. Dr. Badiei is also actively working on outreach projects with high school communities to enhance their learning experience of energy and sustainability topics.

“I always strive to be an effective teacher. A fundamental role of an ‘effective teacher’ is to not only be able to deliver the course content to students, but rather have the ability to transfer useful knowledge to students and help them retain it. I carry with me necessary ingredients to class such as passion, motivation, enthusiasm, guidance, encouragement and going the extra mile when needed to create the right formula and environment for my students.”

Research Interests

Dr. Badiei’s research interests are in molecular catalysis, inorganic and organic synthesis, coordination chemistry, water-oxidation, electrode fabrication and catalyst immobilization for making sustainable energy fuels.

Solar-to-chemical energy conversion, also known by artificial photosynthesis, can lead to the storage of solar energy in the form of chemical bonds such as hydrogen from water and produce new biomass C1 building blocks (for e.g. methane, methanol) from CO2 to help in fuel growth and recycling of CO2 emission. This is a highly-promising strategy for the development of clean and sustainable fuel technologies. Progress in this field, however, will heavily rely on the use of catalysts made of cheap materials and earth-abundant metals to make it an economically viable energy resource.

My research focuses on the design and synthesis of new molecular catalysts for water-splitting, and the investigation of the details of catalytic mechanisms by exploring the structure, spectroscopy and kinetics of catalytic intermediates. Emphasis is placed on exploring new earth-abundant transition metal-complexes that can replace the widely known expensive noble metal catalysts.

Career & Accomplishments

Degrees

  • Johns Hopkins University, Postdoctoral Fellow

  • Georgetown University, Ph.D.

  • American University in Cairo, B.S.

Publications

Rapid identification of homogeneous O2 evolution catalysts and comparative studies of Ru (II)-carboxamides vs. Ru (II)-carboxylates in water-oxidation
Y.M. Badiei, Y. Xie, G. Renderos, J.J. Concepcion, D. Szalda, J. Guevara, R. Rosales, – Journal of Catalysis, 2019, 369, 10-20.

Facile Method To Study Catalytic Oxygen Evolution Using a Dissolved Oxygen Optical Probe: An Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory To Appreciate Artificial …
G. Renderos, T. Aquino, K. Gutierrez, Y.M. Badiei – J. Chem. Ed. 2017, 94, 922. ACS Publications

New water oxidation chemistry of a seven-coordinate ruthenium complex with a tetradentate polypyridyl ligand
J.T. Muckerman, M. Kowalczyk, Y.M. Badiei- Inorganic Chem, 2014 – ACS Publications

Cp* Co (III) catalysts with proton-responsive ligands for carbon dioxide hydrogenation in aqueous media
Y.M. Badiei, W.H. Wang, J.F. Hull, D.J. Szalda – 2013 – ACS Publications

Water Oxidation with Mononuclear Ruthenium(II) Polypyridine Complexes Involving a Direct RuIVO Pathway in Neutral and Alkaline Media
Y.M. Badiei, D.E. Polyansky, J.T. Muckerman – 2013 – ACS Publications

Mechanistic insights into C–H amination via dicopper nitrenes
M.J.B. Aguila, Y.M. Badiei, T.H. Warren – American Chemical Society, 2013

O2 Activation by Bis(imino)pyridine Iron(II)−Thiolate Complexes
Y.M. Badiei, M.A. Siegle – Journal of the American 2011

Catalytic C H Amination with Unactivated Amines through Copper (II) Amides
Y.M. Badiei, R.T. Gephart, S. Mossin, M.S. Varonka – Angewandte Chemie, 2010

Copper–Nitrene Complexes in Catalytic C H Amination
Y.M. Badiei, A. Dinescu, X. Dai, F.W. Heinemann, T.R. Cundari- Angewandte Chemie , 2008.

Transient Terminal Cu− Nitrene Intermediates from Discrete Dicopper Nitrenes
Y.M. Badiei, A. Krishnaswamy, M.M. Melzer, T. Warren- Journal of the America Chemistry Society, 2006

Presentations

Plasma modified electrodes as a platform for immobilizing water splitting catalysts.
Y.M. Badiei, R. Rosales, C. Traba, C. Vera, American Chemical Society, Fall National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 2018.

Green Chemistry: Theory & Practice, CHED. Oral Presentation. An Undergraduate Chemistry Laboratory to Study the Catalytic Oxygen Evolution Reaction in Artificial Photosynthesis
Y.M. Badiei, American Chemical Society Fall National Meeting, Washington DC, August 2017.