Charles Jackson
MIT Department: Chemistry
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Tim Swager
Research Supervisor: Georgios Touplas
Undergraduate Institution: University of Michigan
Website:
Biography
Charles J.-A. Jackson is a chemistry major at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi, graduating in Fall 2025. Originally from Calgary, Alberta, he began his studies at TAMU-CC in 2022. During his undergraduate studies he joined Dr. Mark A. Olson’s lab where he investigated novel fluorescent small molecules for sugar sensing. He has served as a teaching assistant for Organic Chemistry I & II and as the chemistry club’s experiment coordinator where he has shared his passion for chemistry. In chemistry club he has organized demonstrations for students and the local science museum. He was admitted to the MITSummer Research Program, where he conducted research in Dr. Timothy Swager’s lab on rare earth element sequestration using novel ion exchange membranes. Beyond academics, he has been actively involved in community service through volunteering clubs, helping plan and participate in service events such as beach cleans. Additionally, he enjoys cooking and reading fantasy novels. Charles plans to pursue a PhD in organic chemistry with the long-term goal of becoming a research professor.
Abstract
Selective Ion Exchange Resins For Rare Earth Element Extraction from Coal Ash
Charles J.-A. Jackson1, Geogios Toupalas2, and Timothy M. Swager2
1Departments of Physical and Environmental Sciences, Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi
2Department of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Rare Earth Elements (REEs) are a critical resource for modern technologies. As demand for REEs increases with technological advancements secondary sources of REEs such as coal ash become important extraction targets; however, they remain vastly underexplored. This summer’s research focused on two aspects of the extraction of REEs from coal ash. Firstly, we investigated the utilization of more environmentally benign leaching conditions. Secondly, we investigated novel ion exchange (IX) resins based on poly(arylene ethers)s (PAE) for the selective sequestration of the REEs from the leachate. For the first part, we investigated the REE leaching properties of citric acid, particularly focusing on the absorption kinetics. Revealing citric acid has comparable absorption to that of commonly used inorganic acids. For the second part of the project, we studied anionic Fries rearrangements of triptycene diols as a versatile platform for the synthesis of functionalized monomers. Besides providing access to functionalized triptycene monomers, this strategy afforded a novel method for controlled orth-functionalization. This enhanced its synthetic versatility and yielded functionalized triptycene diols. Future investigations will constitute variable temperature absorption kinetics of citric acid and the diversification of PAE based IX resins.