Laren M. Tolbert Regents' Professor Office: MS&E 1100L Phone: 404-894-4093 Fax: 404-894-7452 E-mail Laren M. Tolbert Research Group Web site

B.A., Tulane University, 1970; Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, 1975; Postdoctoral fellow, Harvard University, 1975-1976.

Named Regents' Professor, 2006; NSF Discovery Corps Fellow in 2005-2006; served as Professor-in-Residence at Clark Atlanta Universit; Mercator Fellow, 2003-2004; Georgia Tech Faculty Author Award, 2003; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000; Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, 1983-85; American Chemical Society Award, Phi Beta Kappa, Magna cum Laude, (Tulane University), 1970; Eastman Kodak Scientific Research Award (University of Wisconsin), 1974; National Science Foundation Fellow, 1971-74; Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation Fellow, 1970-71.

Research Interests

Dr. Tolbert's research deals with the application of mechanistic organic chemistry to a variety of problems in synthetic chemistry, photochemistry, biochemistry, and materials science. Taking the broad view that most problems of structure and function in biochemistry and materials science are, at heart, problems in mechanistic organic chemistry, he has sought to apply the diversity of tools available to the modern physical organic chemist to bear on these problems. For instance, the structure of charge carriers in conductive polymers has been probed by synthesizing models for "solitons", the presumed charge carriers in such systems. Similarly, by consideration of the excited-state charge distribution in their conjugate anions, molecules have been synthesized which exhibit enormous differences in excited-state acidities, allowing kinetic studies of proton transfer to weak bases. Finally, the application of modern techniques to the efficient synthesis of old and new polymer structures is under active investigation. These include smart thin films for lithography at extremely small dimensions and for molecular recognition through imprinted polymers.

Representative Publications

"Probing the Decay Coordinate of the Green Fluorescent Protein: Arrest of Cis-Trans Isomerization by the Protein Significantly Narrows the Fluorescence Spectra," Solomon S. Stavrov, Kyril M. Solntsev, Laren M. Tolbert, Dan Huppert, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2006, 128 1540-1546.

"Excited-State Structure Determination of the Green Fluorescent Protein Chromophore," A. Usman, O. F. Mohammed, E. T. J. Nibbering, J. Dong, K. M. Solntsev, L. M. Tolbert, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127(32), 11214-11215.

"Excited-State Proton Transfer in Gas-Expanded Liquids: The Roles of Pressure and Composition in CO2/Methanol Mixtures," R. M. D. Nunes, L. G. Arnaut, K. M. Solntsev, L. M. Tolbert, S. J. Formosinho, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127(34), 11890-11891.

"Pentacene disproportionation during sublimation for field-effect transistors," Luke B. Roberson, Janusz Kowalik, Laren M. Tolbert, Christian Kloc, Roswitha Zeis, Xiaoliu Chi, Richard Fleming, Charles Wilkins, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 3069-3075.

"6-Hydroxyquinoline-N-Oxides: A new class of "super" photoacids," K. M. Solntsev, C. E. Clower, L. M. Tolbert, D. Huppert, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 8534-8544.

"Study of the long-time fluorescence tail of the green fluorescent protein," A. Leiderman, M. Ben-Ziv, L. Genosar, D. Huppert, K. M. Solntsev, L. M. Tolbert; J. Phys. Chem., 2004, 108, 8043-8053.

"Excited-state proton transfer reactions of 10-hydroxycamptothecin," K. M. Solntsev, E. Sullivan, L. M. Tolbert, S. Ashkenazi, P. Leiderman, D. Huppert, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126, 12701-12708.

"Ultrafast intermolecular proton transfer from 10-hydroxy-camptothecin," S. Ashkenazi, P. Leiderman, D. Huppert, K. M. Solntsev, L. M. Tolbert, Femtochemistry and Photobiology, Martin and Hynes, J. T., eds., Elsevier, Amderstam (2004), pp. 201-206.

"Highly aromatic polymer brushes: Toward "molecular masks," X. Chen, J. Ruehe, L. M. Tolbert, D. W. Hess, C. Henderson, Polym. Preprints (Amer. Chem. Soc., Div. Polym. Chem.), 2003, 44, 454.

"Polymerization of 3-undecylbithiophene and preparation of poly(3-undecylbithiophene)/polystyrene composites in supercritical carbon dioxide," K. F. Abbett, A. S. Teja, J. A. Kowalik, L. M. Tolbert, Macromolecules, 2003, 36, 3015-3019.

"Iodine doping of poly (3-undecylbithiophene) and its composites with polystyrene using supercritical carbon dioxide," K. F. Abbett, A. S. Teja, J. A. Kowalik, L. M. Tolbert, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2003, 90, 0000.

"Preparation of conducting composites of polypyrrole using supercritical carbon dioxide," K. F. Abbett, A. S. Teja, J. A. Kowalik, L. M. Tolbert, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 2003, 90, 1113-1116.

"Highly aromatic polymer brushes: Toward "molecular masks," X. Chen, J. Ruhe, L. M. Tolbert, D. W. Hess, C. Henderson, Polym. Preprints (Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Polym. Chem.) 2003, 44, 454.

"Optical and electrochemical characterization of poly (3-undecyl-2,2 '-bithiophene) in thin film solid state TiO2 photovoltaic solar cells," C. D. Grant, A. M. Schwartzberg, G. P. Smestad, J. Kowalik, L. M. Tolbert, J. Z. Zhang, Synth. Metals, 2003, 132, 197-204.

"A technique to compare polythiophene solid-state dye sensitized TiO2 solar cells to liquid junction devices," G. P. Smestad, S. Spiekermann, J. Kowalik, C. D. Grant, A. M. Schwartzberg, J. Zhang, L. M. Tolbert, E. Moons, Sol. Energ. Mat. Sol., 2003, 76, 85-105.

Grant, C. D. Schwartzberg, A. M. Smestad, G. P. Kowalik, J. Tolbert, L. M. Zhang, J. Z., "Characterization of nanocrystalline and thin film TiO₂ solar cells with poly(3-undecyl-2,2'-bithiophene) as a sensitizer and hole conductor," J. Electroanal. Chem., 2002, 522, 40-48.

Chen, Xiaohua, Tolbert, Laren M., Henderson, Clifford L., Hess, Dennis W., and RŸhe, Juergen, "Polymer Pattern Formation On SiO₂ Surfaces Using Surface Monolayer Initiated Polymerization," J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B, 2001, 19, 2013-2019.

Chen, X. Tolbert, L. M., Hess, D. W., Henderson, C., "A Bergman Cyclization Approach to Polymers for Thin-Film Lithography," Macromolecules, 2001, 34, 4104-4108.

Tolbert, Laren M., Solntsev, Kyril. M., "Excited-State Proton Transfer: from Constrained Systems to 'Super' Photoacids to Superfast Proton Transfer," Acc. Chem. Res., 2002, 35, 19 -27.

Solntsev, K. M., Tolbert, L. M., Cohen, B., Huppert, D., Hayashi, Y., Feldman, Y., "Excited-State Proton Transfer in Chiral Environments. 1. Chiral Solvents," J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2002, 124, 9046-9047.

Henderson, C. L., Barstow, S., Jeyakumar, A., McCoy, K., Hess, D. W., Tolbert, L. M., "Novel approaches to nanopatterning: from surface monolayer initiated polymerization to hybrid organometallic-organic bilayers," Proc. Mat. Res. Soc., 2002, 705, 3-14.

Spiekermann, S., Smestad, G., Kowalik, J., Tolbert, L. M., Graetzel, M., "Poly(4-undecyl-2,2'-bithiophene) as a hole conductor in solid state dye sensitized titanium dioxide solar cells," Synth. Met., 2001, 121, 1603-1604.