Richard M Crooks

crooks@cm.utexas.edu
Biochemistry, Analytical Chemistry
Biochemistry
Analytical Chemistry
Professor, Faculty
Richard M Crooks

Contact Information

Office
WEL 3.210AA
Office Phone
475-8674
Fax
475-8651

Research Group

Crooks Group

Education

BS, University of Illinois (1981);   PhD, University of Texas (1987); Postdoctoral Fellow, MIT (1987-1989)

Awards

Carl Wagner Memorial Award of the Electrochemical Society (2003)

Bioanalytical chemistry, nanochemistry, and electrochemistry

The group's research interests include electrochemistry, nanomaterials, catalysis, chemical and biological sensing, and microanalytical systems. For example, we are interested in learning how the physical and chemical properties of catalysts affect their selectivity and efficiency. Nanoscale catalysts in the 1-3 nm size range are of particular interest, because very slight changes to materials in this size range materials can dramatically affect their catalytic properties. Accordingly, we recently developed a new template-based approach for preparing multimetallic catalysts that have a high degree of compositional and structural uniformity. These materials provide the means for quantitatively understanding the relationship between catalyst structure and function. One important lesson we have learned during the course of our studies is that there are not many good analytical methods for studying the properties of nanoparticles smaller than about 3 nm, and therefore we are also inventing new analytical methods to better understand these materials. The group also has a long-standing interest in chemical and biological sensors. The objective of these studies is to design, build, and understand electrochemical sensors that each consist of thousands of electrodes and that have limits of detection and sensitivities approaching those of fluorescence-based sensors. Such miniaturized devices have applications as point-of-care testing systems for genetic and infectious disease states. Finally, we recently discovered a method for replicating the types of DNA microarrays that are currently the workhorse of genomic testing. At present such arrays are usually made by spotting one test site at a time, but they can be expensive because each array can consist of >1,000,000 test sites. Our approach results in replication of an entire array in parallel, which could result is a substantial reduction in cost. The chemistry underlying the replication principle is fascinating in its own right and is also under study.

Representative Publications

  • M. R. Knecht; R. M. Crooks  "Magnetic Properties of Denderimer-Encapsulated Iron Nanoparticles Contining and Average of 55 and 147 Atoms" New J. Chem. 31 (2007): 1349-1353.

  • H. Ye; R. M. Crooks  "Effect of Elemental Composition of PtPd Bimetallic Nanoparticles Containing an Average of 180 Atoms on the Kinetics of the Electrochemical Oxygen Reduction Reaction" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 129 (2007): 3627-3633.

  • J. Kim; J. Heo; R. M. Crooks  "Hybridization of DNA to Bead-Immobilized Probes Confined within a Microfluidic Channel" Langmuir 22 (2006): 10130-10134.

  • M. R. Knecht; J. C. Garcia-Martinez; R. M. Crooks  "Synthesis, Characterization, and Magnetic Properties of Dendrimer-Encapsulated Nickel Nanoparticles Containing <150 Atoms" Chem. Mater. 18 (2006): 5039-5044.

  • J. Kim; R. M. Crooks  "Transfer of Surface Polymerase Reaction Products to a Secondary Platform with Conservation of Spatial Registration" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 (2006): 12076-12077.

  • O. M. Wilson; M. R. Knecht; J. C. Garcia-Martinez; R. M. Crooks  "The Effect of Pd Nanoparticle Size on the Catalytic Hydrogenation of Allyl Alcohol" J. Am. Chem. Soc. 128 (2006): 4510-4511.