Dr. Joshua Pak
Department Chair - Full Professor
Office: PSC 145, Pocatello / PSC 360, Pocatello
208-282-4373
Ph.D. Chemistry, University of Oregon, 1999
Master of Science Chemistry, Duquesne University, 1995
Bachelor of Science Chemistry and English Literature, Whittier College, 1993
Research area: Organic, Organometallic, Materials and Polymer Chemistry
Student experience required for research: First, second and third year chemistry majors or Enrolled in General Chemistry or Organic Chemistry
Student experience gained from research: Organic and organometallic synthetic techniques, NMR, air-sensitive techniques, computational chemistry, mass spectrometry
Ideal preparation for: Polymers, materials, pharmaceuticals, medical research, preparation for graduate school in chemistry and for professional school such as medical, dental and pharmacy schools.
Research Focus
Research in Pak Lab consists of synthesis and study of “non-natural” nano- to meso-scale materials. We utilize modern synthetic methods for the preparation of novel inorganic, organic, organometallic, and organic-inorganic hybrid materials with technologically important properties such as (semi-)conductivity and nonlinear optical (NLO) activities. In addition to preparation of organic, organometallic, and inorganic materials, we collaborate with various research groups here at ISU and around the world in analysis, device construction, and device testing.
Recent Publications
“Multi-step synthesis of hexaarylbenene for organic chemistry lab” Lamm, Ashley N.; Puhl, Dillon; Cox, Abbigail; Pak, Joshua J., Chemical Educator, 2019, 24, 17-173.
“Synthesis and Characterization of Bimetallic Single-Source Precursors (Ph3P)2M(µ-SEt)2E(SEt)2 for MES2 Chalcopyrite Materials (M = Cu, Ag and E = In, Ga, Al)” Kelsey R. Margulieux, Chivin Sun, Matthew T. Kihara, Adam C. Colson, Lev N. Zakharov, Kenton H. Whitmire, Andrew W. Holland, and Joshua J. Pak, European Journal of Inorganic Chemistry, 2017, 2068–2077, DOI: 10.1002/ejic.201700115.
“A Multicomponent Metal-Organic Framework with a High Tolerance for Vacancy Defects” Lee, Seok; Doussot, Celine; Baux, Anthony; Liu, Lujia; Jameson, Geoffrey; Richardson, Christopher; Pak, Joshua J.; Trousselet, Fabien; Coudert, François-Xavier; Telfer, Shane, Chem. Mater. 2016, 28(1), 368–375, DOI: 10.1021/acs.chemmater.5b04306.
“Fabrication and Characterization of Thin Film Solar Cell Made From CuIn0.75Ga0.25S2 Wurtzite Nanoparticles” Fengyan Zhang, Chivin Sun, Cyril Bajracharya, Rene G. Rodriguez, Joshua J. Pak, Journal of Nanomaterials, 2013, Article ID 320375, 5 pages, 2013. doi:10.1155/2013/320375.
“A Large-Scale Synthesis and Characterization of Quaternary CuInxGa1-xS2 Chalcopyrite Nanoparticles via Microwave Batch Reactions” Chivin Sun, Richard D. Westover, Gary Long, Cyril Bajracharya, Jerry Harris, Alex Punnoose, Rene G. Rodriguez, and Joshua J. Pak*, Int. J. Chem. Eng. 2011, Article ID 545234.