Assistant Professor

Office:   211 Physical Sciences Laboratory Building
Phone: (419) 372-3229
Email:  kglusac@bgsu.edu
Personal site:  Visit 

Biographical Facts
Joined the faculty in 2006
Ph.D., University of Florida, 2003
B.A., Belgrade University, Yugoslavia, 1999

Research Interests

I am interested in a study of coupled proton and electron motion in hydrogen-bonded D/A systems. Electron transfer (ET) mediated by hydrogen bonds (H-bonds) is essential to the function of redox proteins in many biological processes, particularly photosynthesis and respiration. Apart from providing a medium for ET, H-bonds in ET proteins have other functions. For example, ET in biological systems is often accompanied with a proton transfer along a certain H-bonded surface with the goal to achieve catalytic activity or drive proton pumps. Even though some insight into the general ET and proton transfer pathways in proteins has been obtained, a full understanding of the coupled effects that proton and electron motion have on each other is yet to be achieved.

Apart from its significance in biological systems, the understanding of ET through H-bonded systems will be valuable for the development of future devices. For example, the design of an efficient solar cell requires a donor/acceptor (D/A) system with a long-lived charge separated state. To achieve this goal, a specific H-bonded D/A system can be envisioned in which the initial charge separation induces the proton motion along the H-bonded surface and makes the charge recombination highly inefficient. In other words, the H-bonded surface could act as a unidirectional gate for the electron flow in D/A systems.

In order to obtain information on both electron and proton dynamics, we use two techniques: VIS pump-VIS probe and VIS pump-IR probe spectroscopy. After excitation using a VIS pump beam, the ET processes is studied by probing the transient species in the VIS spectral region, while the proton motion is observed by probing the vibrational modes of the transient species in the IR region. The model compounds are designed with the goal to elucidate the mechanism of coupled electron and proton motion both along H-bonded D/A systems and along H-bonded D/water/A systems.

Selected Publications

K. D. Glusac, S. Jiang and K. S. Schanze, "Photophysics of  Ir(III) Complexes with Oligo(arylene ethynylene) Ligands," Chem. Commun., 2002, 2504.
 
Y. Liu, S. Jiang, K. D. Glusac, D. H. Powell, D. F. Anderson and K. S. Schanze, "Photophysics of Mono-Disperse Platinum Acetylide Oligomers: Delocalization in the Singlet and triplet Excited States,",\ J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2002, 124, 12412.

K. D. Glusac, I. Ghiviriga, K. A. Abboud and K. S. Schanze, " Photophysics and Photochemistry of Stilbene-Containing Platinum Acetylides, " J. Phys.  Chem. B., 2004; 108(16); 4969.

K. D. Glusac, M. Pinto, C. Tan and K. S. Schanze, “Luminescence Quenching of a Phosphorescent Conjugated Polyelectrolyte,”,J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 14964.

A. Goun, K. D. Glusac, M. D. Fayer, “Photoinduced Electron Transfer and Geminate Recombination in Liquids on Short Time Scales: Experiments and Theory,” J. Chem. Phys., 2006, 124, 084504.