Eric M. Villa,finished PhD June 2010

Eric completed his undergraduate education at Augustana college in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he got involved in research on ionic liquids. After he graduated he moved to UC Davis where he recently (Spring 2010) completed his PhD on the dynamics of water exchange involving metal-oxide clusters. On the 11th of June 2010 Eric moved to Notre Dame to do a postdoc in the lab of Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt.

Research

Eric Villa was studying the reactivity of polyoxometalates in water. During his research he focussed on the decametalate class of polyoxoniobates and carried out substitution of single titanium atoms for niobium in order to study global and local effects in large aqueous ions. These reactions were studied using several analytical tools, including 17O-NMR and ESI-MS. The group has a long history of investigating reaction dynamics of systems where activation of water is a key step. In my research I am focussing on the interaction of discrete oxide and peroxide niobium and uranium clusters with water. Our primary tool for discerning the reactivities of these systems is 17O NMR. We recently conducted a study of the rates of exchange of oxygen on the decaniobate ion (figure 1) over a wide range of pH. Surprisingly, we found that the rates of exchange varied significantly between different, but comparable, sites. Importantly, we also found that the rates of exchange varied by several orders of magnitude when changing the pH. These results serve to underline the limitations of computational methods, as well as intuitive reduction, in prediciting an estimating reactivities involving metal clusters, such as mineral surfaces or heterogeneous catalysts

Publications

2011

15. Johnson, Rene L.; Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Rustad, James R.; Casey, William H. "17O NMR and computational study of a tetrasiliconiobate ion, [H2+xSi4Nb16O56](14-x)-", Chem. Eur. J. , 2011, 17, 9359-9367. Link

14. Ohlin, C. André; Harley, Stephen J.; McAlpin, J. Gregory; Hockin, Rosalie K.; Mercado, Brandon Q., Johnson, Rene L.; Villa, Eric M.; Fidler, Mary Kate; Olmstead, Marilyn M.; Spiccia, Leone; Britt, R. David; Casey, William H. "Rates of water exchange for two cobalt(II) heteropolyoxotungstate compounds in aqueous solution", Eur. J. Chem. , 2011, 17(16), 4408-4417. Link

2010

13. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Casey, William H. "Adding reactivity to structure 2: Oxygen-isotope-exchange rates in three isostructural oxide ions", Amer. J. Sci., 2010, 310, 629-644. Link

12. Ohlin, C. André; Villa, Eric M.; Fettinger, James C.; Casey, William H. "The first peroxotitanoniobate cluster - [N(CH3)4]10[Ti12Nb6O38(O2)6]", Inorg. Chim. Acta, 2010, accepted

11. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Casey, William H. "Borate Accelerates Oxygen-Isotope Exchange for Polyoxoniobate Ions in Water", Eur. Chem. J., 2010, accepted Link

10. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Casey, William H. "Oxygen-isotope exchange rates for three isostructural polyoxometalate ions ", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2010,132(4), 5264-5272. Link

9. Ohlin, C. André; Villa, Eric M.; Rustad, James R.; Casey, William H. "Dissolution of insulating oxide materials at the molecular scale ", Nature mat., 2010, 9, 11-19. Link

8. Weisshaar, Duane E.; Earl, Gary W. Earl; Villa, Eric M.; (Paumen) Zierke, Jessica L.; Fry, Christopher J.; Becvar, Kara L.; Li, Shik Ki; Schafer, Matthew C. "Kinetic Study of the Reaction of Dimethyl Carbonate with Trialkylamines", Int. J. Chem. Kin., 2010, 42(4), 221-225. Link

2009

7. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Rustad, James R.; Casey,William H. "Isotope-Exchange Dynamics in Isostructural Decametalates with Profound Differences in Reactivity", J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2009, 131(45), 16488-16492. Link. Issue cover.

6. Ohlin, C. André ; Villa, Eric M.; Fettinger, J. C.; Casey, William H. "A new titanoniobate ion - Completing the series [Nb10O28]6-, [TiNb9O28]7- and [Ti2Nb8O28]8-", Dalton Trans. 2009, 2677-2678. Link.

5. Ohlin, C. André ; Villa, Eric M.; Casey, William H. "One-pot synthesis of the decaniobate salt [N(CH3) 4]6[Nb10O28].6 H2O from hydrous niobium oxide", Inorg. Chim. Acta, 2009 , 362, 1391-1392 . Link

2008

4. Ohlin, C. André; Villa, Eric M.; Fettinger, James C.; Casey, William H. "Distinctly different reactivities of two similar polyoxoniobates with hydrogen peroxide" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2008, 47(43), 8251-8254. Link

3. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Balogh, Edina; Anderson, Travis M.; Nyman, May D.; Casey, William H. "Adding reactivity to structure - reaction dynamics of a nanometer-size oxide ion in water" Am. J. Sci., 2008, 308, 942-953. Link

2. Ohlin, C. André; Villa, Eric M.; Fettinger, J. C.; Casey, William H. "A new type of polyoxometalate - the [Ti12Nb6O44]10- ion" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2008 , 47(30), 5634-5636. Link

1. Villa, Eric M.; Ohlin, C. André; Balogh, Edina; Anderson, Travis M.; Nyman, May D.; Casey, William H. "Reaction dynamics of the decaniobate ion [HxNb10O28](6-x)- in water" Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2008, 47(26), 4844-4846. Link.
See also Editor's Choice in Science, 2008, 320, 1263.

About our Research

The Casey laboratory specialises broadly in aqueous chemistry related to the environmental and geological sciences. More ...