Dr. Edison Castro
Title: Post-Doctoral
B.S: Universidad de Narino (Colombia) - 2008
M.S: Universidad del Valle (Colombia) - 2012
Ph.D: University of Texas at El Paso (USA) - 2017
Nationality: Columbian
Contact Info: eacastroportillo@miners.utep.edu
Project Title: Synthesis of fullerene derivatives for potential photovoltaic and biological applications, synthesis of organic functional materials for optoelectronic devices, and fabrication of perovskite solar cells.
Research description: Fullerenes have attracted increasing attention for both photovoltaic and biological applications. Our research group is working on the functionalization of fullerene cages to increase their solubility in organic solvents and in aqueous medium through the synthesis of pyrrolidinium salt derivatives or by the addition of polar group containing addends. Currently, perovskite solar cells (PSCs) are the most rapidly developing type of solar cells with certified efficiencies rising from 3.8% in 2009 to 22.1% in 2016. Our approach is to use new fullerene derivatives as the electron transporting materials in inverted planar PSC architectures.
Publications:
- Insuasty, H.; Castro, E.; Sanchez, E.; Cobo, J.; Glidewell, C. "Hydrogen-Bonding Patterns in Two Aroylthiocarbamates and Two Aroylimidothiocarbonates". Acta Cryst. C. 2010, 66 (Pt 3), o141-146.
- Insuasty, H.; Insuasty, B.; Castro, E.; Quiroga, J.; Abonía, R.; Nogueras, M.; Cobo, J. "Three Practical Approaches for the Synthesis of Novel 4,7-Dihetarylpyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]Triazines". 2012, 68 (46), 9384-9390.
- Insuasty, H.; Insuasty, B.; Castro, E.; Quiroga, J.; Abonia, R. "An Efficient Two-Step Synthesis of Novel 2-Amino-Substituted Pyrazolo[1,5-a][1,3,5]Triazines". Tetrahedron Lett. 2013, 54 (13), 1722-1725.
- Castro, E.; Insuasty, H.; Insuasty, B.; Cobo, J.; Glidewell, C. "2-Ethyl-1-[5-(4-Methylphenyl)Pyrazol-3-Yl]-3-(Thiophene-2-Carbonyl)Isothiourea: Molecular Ribbons Containing Three Types of Hydrogen-Bonded Ring". Acta Crystallogr. Sect. C-Cryst. Struct. Commun. 2014, 70 (Pt 11), 1064-1068.
- Castro, E.; Cabrera-Espinoza, A.; Deemer, E.; Echegoyen, L. "Low-Energy-Gap Organic Based Acceptor–Donor–Acceptor Π-Conjugated Small Molecules for Bulk-Heterojunction Organic Solar Cells". J. Org. Chem. 2015, (21), 4629-4634.
- Echeverry, C. A.; Cotta, R.; Castro, E.; Ortiz, A.; Echegoyen, L.; Insuasty, B. "New Organic Dyes with High IPCE Values Containing Two Triphenylamine Units as Co-Donors for Efficient Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells". RSC Adv. 2015, 5 (75), 60823-60830.
- Hodges, D.; Sana, C.; Shahriar, S.; Galindo, J.; Kava, D.; Castro, E.; Cotta, R.; Buck, D.; Echegoyen, L. "Earth Abundant and Nontoxic Absorber Material for Low Cost, Thin Film Solar Cells", 2015, pp 53-58.
- Shahriar, S.; Sana, C.; Galindo, J.; Kava, D.; Hodges, D.; Castro, E.; Cotta, R.; Buck, D.; Echegoyen, L. "Characterization and Analysis of Structural and Optical Properties of Perovskite Thin Films", 2015, pp 1-6.
- Martinez, Z. S.; Castro, E.; Seong, C. S.; Ceron, M. R.; Echegoyen, L.; Llano, M. "Fullerene Derivatives Strongly Inhibit HIV-1 Replication by Affecting Virus Maturation without Impairing Protease Activity". Agents Chemother. 2016, 60 (10), 5731-5741.
- Echegoyen, L.; Llano, M.; Castro, E.; Martinez, Z. "1,3-Dipolar [70]Fulleropyrrolidinium Iodide Derivatives". WO 2016/145134 A1, 2016.
- Castro, E.; Martinez, Z. S.; Seong, C. S.; Cabrera-Espinoza, A.; Ruiz, M.; Hernandez, G., A; Valdez, F.; Llano, M.; Echegoyen, L. A. "Characterization of New Cationic N,N-Dimethyl[70]Fulleropyrrolidinium Iodide Derivatives as Potent HIV-1 Maturation Inhibitors". Med. Chem. 2016, 59, 10963-10973.
- Tian, C.; Castro, E.; Wang, T.; Betancourt-Solis, G.; Rodriguez, G.; Echegoyen, L. "Improved Performance and Stability of Inverted Planar Perovskite Solar Cells Using Fulleropyrrolidine Layers". ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces. 2016, 8, 31426-31432.
- Cerón, M. R.; Castro, E.; Neti, V. S. P. K.; Dunk, P. W.; Echegoyen, L. A. "Regiochemically Controlled Synthesis of a Β-4-Β′ [70]Fullerene Bis-Adduct". Org. Chem. 2017, 82 (2), 893-897.
- Fuertes-Espinosa, C.; García-Simón, C.; Castro, E.; Costas, M.; Echegoyen, L.; Ribas, X. "A Copper-Based Supramolecular Nanocapsule That Enables Straightforward Purification of Sc3N-Based Endohedral Metallofullerene Soots". Eur. J. 2017, 23, 1-6.
- Tian, C.; Kochiss, K.; Castro, E.; Betancourt-Solis, G.; Han, H.; Echegoyen, L. "A Dimeric Fullerene Derivative for Efficient Inverted Planar Perovskite Solar Cells with Improved Stability". Mater. Chem. A. 2017, 5 (16), 7326-7332.
- Echegoyen, L. A.; Rivera-Nazario, D. M.; Castro, E.; Martinez, Z.; Llano, M. "[1-3]-Thiazine-Fulleropyrrolo Derivatives of C60 and C70 as HIV-Inhibitor Agents". US20170197987 A1, 2017.
- Castro, E.; Hernandez Garcia, A.; Zavala, G.; Echegoyen, L. "Fullerenes in Biology and Medicine". Mater. Chem. B. 2017, 5 (32), 6523-6535.
- Deemer, E. M.; Paul, P. K.; Manciu, F. S.; Botez, C. E.; Hodges, D. R.; Landis, Z.; Akter, T.; Castro, E.; Chianelli, R. R. "Consequence of Oxidation Method on Graphene Oxide Produced with Different Size Graphite Precursors". Sci. Eng., B. 2017, 224, 150-157.
- Castro, E.; Azmani, K.; Hernandez Garcia, A.; Aghabali, A.; Liu, S.; Metta-Magana, A.; Olmstead, M.; Rodriguez-Fortea, A.; Poblet, J.; Echegoyen, L. "Unusual C2h-Symmetric Trans-1-(bis-Pyrrolidine)-Tetra-Malonate Hexa-Adducts of C60. The Unexpected Regio- and Stereo-Control Mediated by Malonate-Pyrrolidine Interaction". Eur. J. 2017, n/a-n/a.
- Voevodin, A.; Abella, L.; Castro, E.; Paley, D. W.; Campos, L. M.; Rodriguez-Fortea, A.; Poblet, J. M.; Echegoyen, L.; Roy, X. "Dimerization of Endohedral Fullerene in a Superatomic Crystal". Eur. J. 2017, n/a-n/a.
- Deng, Y.; Xu, B.; Castro, E.; Fernandez-Delgado, O.; Echegoyen, L.; Baldridge, K. K.; Siegel, J. S. "Decakis(Arylthio)Corannulenes: Transferable Photochemical and Redox Parameters and Photovoltaic Device Performance". J. Org. Chem. 2017, (29), 4338-4342.
- Castro, E.; Zavala, G.; Seethraraman, S.; D’Souza, F.; and Echegoyen, L. “Impact of Fullerene Derivative Isomeric Purity on the Performance of Inverted Planar Perovskite Solar Cells”. Mater. Chem. A. 2017. DOI: 10.1039/c7ta06338e.
- Castro, E.; Murillo, J.; Fernandez-Delgado, O.; and Echegoyen, L. “Progress in hybrid perovskite solar cells based on fullerenes”. J. Mat. Chem. C. 2017.
- Mulet-Gas, M.; Abella, L.; Cerón, M. R.; Castro, E.; Marshall, A. G.; Rodríguez-Fortea, A.; Echegoyen, L.; Poblet, J. M.; and Dunk, P. W. “Transformation of Doped Graphite into Cluster-Encapsulated Fullerene Cages”. Nat. Commun. 2017.
- Castro, E.; Sisto, T. J.; Romero, E. L.; Liu, F.; Peurifoy, S. R.; Wang, J.; Zhu, X.; Nuckolls, C.; and Echegoyen, L. “Cove-Edge Nanoribbon Materials for Efficient Inverted Halide Perovskite Solar Cells”. Submitted. 2017.
- Saiz, C.; Castro, E.; Martinez, L. M.; Hennadige, S. R. J.; Echegoyen, L.; Singamaneni, S. R. “External Effects on the Glass Substrate Used in the Perovskite Solar Cell Devices: Electron Spin Resonance Investigation”. Submitted. 2017.
- Krishna, S. K.; Zhang, J.; Castro, E.; Bernal, R. A.; and Li, X-L. “One-step rapid synthesis of atomically-precise Au25(SG)18 nanoclusters toward applications in photothermal therapy”. Submitted. 2017.
- Tian, C.; Betancourt-Solis, G.: Nan, Z.; Castro, E.; and Echegoyen, L. ''Fullerene derivative with a branched alkyl chain enhanced charge extraction and stability in inverted planar perovskite solar cells". Submitted. 2017.