On August 22, 2019 Sigrid Selberg successfully defended her PhD thesis titled Synthesis and properties of lipophilic phosphazene-based indicator molecules.
The dissertation presented by Sigrid Selberg is focused on the design and synthesis of a family of highly lipophilic phosphazene based indicators. 16 new phosphazene based indicators where phosphazene structure is extended with an azo group or with 4- (trifluoromethyl)coumarin backbone were synthesized and characterized, indicators are active in both visible absorption and fluorescence. These compounds are highly lipophilic in both neutral and protonated form, therefore, the synthesized compounds have all the desired and suitable properties to employ them in the design of an optical pH sensor. For the first time, alkyl and aryl phosphazenes are used for this purpose.
In addition, the original approach for quantifying acidity/basicity of lipophilic molecules in water-immiscible media that is at equilibrium with aqueous phase is developed and applied in the determination of biphasic pKa values of some of the synthesized compounds.
Congratulations to you, Sigrid!