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Current Research
My research interests are in the area of organic synthesis and chemistry. My research group takes a synthetic view of organic, organometallic, polymer and materials chemistry. We are involved in a number of interdisciplinary research projects in collaboration with groups in other disciplines. One of the current interdisciplinary projects in the area of organic materials chemistry is in collaboration with Prof. Stephen Ducharme’s research group in the UNL physics and materials science department. The goal is to improve the performance of piezoelectric devices made from polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) and other synthetic polymers by nanoscale material structuring. In addition, my group is interested in the use of metal-directed self-assembly to prepare new metal-organic materials with unusual optical properties.
Another ongoing interdisciplinary project is directed at the design, synthesis, and evaluation of antimicrobial agents that inhibit a novel class of microbial enzymes. This project grew from the collaboration with Prof. Stephen Ragsdale in the UNL Biochemistry Department and Prof. Jess Miner in the UNL Animal Science Department.
Other current projects include the design, discovery and development of new synthetic methods based on transition metal-catalyzed carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, the development of novel combinatorial and parallel methods for catalyst discovery and optimization, the application of these new methods to the total synthesis of natural products, and the design and development of enantioselective catalyst systems with potential for environmentally benign chemical synthesis. The typical graduate or postdoctoral student in my group can expect to receive extensive training in organic synthesis and significant exposure to one or more of the following specialties: organometallic chemistry and catalysis; parallel methods and combinatorial chemistry; asymmetric synthesis; the design of tight-binding enzyme inhibitors; polymer chemistry; or organic materials chemistry.
Recent Publications
James M. Takacs, D. Sahadeva Reddy, Shin A. Moteki, Di Wu, and Hector Palencia, “Asymmetric Catalysis using Self-assembled Chiral Bidentate P,P-ligands”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126 (14), 4494-4495 (2004).
James M. Takacs, Scott D. Schroeder, Jianxin Han, Meg Gifford, Xun-tian Jiang, Twana Saleh, Suresh Vayalakkada, and Amy H. Yap, “Controlling Mode Selectivity in Palladium-Catalyzed Bisdiene Carbocyclizations: Optimizing for Cyclization-Trapping Over Cycloisomerization”, Organic Letters 5, 3595-3598 (2003).
Razvan Dumitru, Hector Palencia, Scott D. Schroeder, Bree A. DeMontigny, James M. Takacs, Madeline E. Rasche, Jess L. Miner, and Stephen W. Ragsdale, “Targeting Methanopterin Biosynthesis to Inhibit Methanogenesis”, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 69, 7236-7241 (2003).
J. M. Takacs, S. Ducharme, A. Leonov, and L. Liu, “Charge-Carrier Mobility Studies of Potential Photorefractive Dendrimers”, Polym. Mater. Sci. Eng. 83, 192-193 (2000).