Christopher Brewer

View CV 

Bio

Brewer was born and raised in Tampa, FL.  His research career began in 2008, while in high school, at the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI).  He worked with a team of Museum Educator Researchers at MOSI, focusing on designing successful scaffolding strategies in informal learning institutions.  Brewer attended Florida State University (FSU) for his undergraduate degree.  While at FSU Brewer performed undergraduate research under the direction of Dr. Lei Zhu, focusing on the synthesis of bisazides and bistriazoles.  During Summer 2014 Brewer was a summer REU student at the University of South Florida and studied the synthesis of pseudo cyclodextrins under the direction of Dr. Kirpal Bisht.  In Fall of 2014, Brewer earned his B.S. degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry from FSU.  In Fall of 2015, Brewer joined the graduate program at the University of Florida (UF) and worked under the direction of Dr. Lisa McElwee-White.  Brewer’s dissertation research at UF focused on designing precursors for photoassisted chemical vapor deposition (PACVD) and elucidating photochemical decomposition mechanisms.  While at UF, Brewer also led a team to design a Harry Potter themed Chemistry course, coined as Potterology.  During Summer 2021, Brewer was a visiting graduate student in his collaborator’s lab, Dr. Amy Walker at the University of Texas at Dallas, and gained hands on experience with running PACVD experiments.  Brewer graduated from UF with his Ph.D. in Chemistry in the Summer of 2021.  Subsequently, he moved to Raleigh in Fall of 2021 to join the Castellano lab as a Postdoctoral Scholar.

Google Scholar  |  Follow on Twitter – @DrCBrew |  Connect on LinkedIn

Outside of the lab Brewer enjoys spending time outdoors and exploring new places.  More often than not, you can find him attempting to teach his cat Porkchop the joys of chemistry.

Area(s) of Expertise

Synthesis and optimization of blue emitters for OLEDs.

Publications

• Photoactivated Ru chemical vapor deposition using (η3-allyl)Ru(CO)3X (X = Cl, Br, I): From molecular adsorption to Ru thin film deposition , Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology A (2022)
• Photochemistry of (η4-diene)Ru(CO)3 Complexes as Precursor Candidates for Photoassisted Chemical Vapor Deposition , Organometallics (2022)
• Resuscitating the Mercury Beating Heart: An Improvement on the Classic Demo , Journal of Chemical Education (2021)
• Efficient NH3-based process to remove chlorine from electron beam deposited ruthenium produced from (η3-C3H5)Ru(CO)3Cl , Scientific Reports (2020)
• Photochemistry of 1,5-Cyclooctadiene Platinum Complexes for Photoassisted Chemical Vapor Deposition , Organometallics (2020)
• Dissociative ionization of the potential focused electron beam induced deposition precursor π-allyl ruthenium(II) tricarbonyl bromide, a combined theoretical and experimental study , The European Physical Journal D (2019)
• Focused Electron Beam-Induced Deposition and Post-Growth Purification Using the Heteroleptic Ru Complex (η3-C3H5)Ru(CO)3Br , ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (2019)
• Photochemistry of (η3-allyl)Ru(CO)3X Precursors for Photoassisted Chemical Vapor Deposition , Organometallics (2019)
• Photochemical CVD of Ru on functionalized self-assembled monolayers from organometallic precursors , The Journal of Chemical Physics (2017)
• Cu(II)-Catalyzed Oxidative Formation of 5,5′-Bistriazoles , Journal of Organic Chemistry (2016)

View all publications