Contact Information
Research Areas
Biography
Majed received a B.S. in chemistry and biochemistry from the University of Washington in 2013 where he conducted research in the lab of Professor Daniel R. Gamelin. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 2019 under the tutelage of Professor Danna E. Freedman. Majed then moved to Yale University as a National Institutes of Health NRSA postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Professor Patrick L. Holland. Professor Fataftah is starting his independent career in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois in 2023.
Research Interests
Inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry: synthesis, spectroscopy, and electronic structure; metal-organic frameworks; molecular magnetism; quantum information science.
Research Description
The Fataftah lab is a physical inorganic chemistry group focused on harnessing synthetic chemistry to address challenging problems at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and materials science. Specifically, we are interested in exploiting the synthetic tunability of molecules to control their photophysical properties for quantum information science, magnetic properties to design novel magnetic materials, and reactivity to model heterogeneous and bioinorganic active sites for catalysis. Students in the Fataftah lab will gain expertise in the synthesis of small molecules and materials, X-ray crystallography, magnetometry, physical property measurements, spectroscopy (EPR, UV-vis-NIR, photoluminescence, and Mössbauer), and kinetics.
Courses Taught
Chem512: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
Additional Campus Affiliations
Assistant Professor, Chemistry
Recent Publications
Wilson, D. W. N, Fataftah, M. S., Mathe, Z., Mercado, B. Q., DeBeer S., Holland P. L. (2023). Three-Coordinate Nickel and Metal-Metal Interactions in a Heterometallic Iron-Sulfur Cluster. Journal of the American Chemical Society 2024, 146, 4013-4025.
Fataftah, M. S., Mercado, B. Q., Holland, P. L. (2023). Valence delocalization in carbon-bridged mixed-valence iron complexes. Chemistry - A European Journal, e202301962.
McWilliams, S. F., Mercado, B. Q., MacLeod, K. C., Fataftah, M. S., Tarrago, M., Wang, X., Bill, E., Ye, S., & Holland, P. L. (2023). Dynamic effects on ligand field from rapid hydride motion in an iron(ii) dimer with an S = 3 ground state. Chemical Science, 14(9), 2303-2312.
Nagelski, A. L., Fataftah, M. S., Bollmeyer, M. M., McWilliams, S. F., MacMillan, S. N., Mercado, B. Q., Lancaster, K. M., & Holland, P. L. (2020). The influences of carbon donor ligands on biomimetic multi-iron complexes for N2reduction. Chemical Science, 11(47), 12710-12720.
Collins, K. A., Saballos, R. J., Fataftah, M. S., Puggioni, D., Rondinelli, J. M., & Freedman, D. E. (2020). Synthetic investigation of competing magnetic interactions in 2D metal-chloranilate radical frameworks. Chemical Science, 11(23), 5922-5928.
Fataftah, M. S., Bayliss, S. L., Laorenza, D. W., Wang, X., Phelan, B. T., Wilson, C. B., Mintun, P. J., Kovos, B. D., Wasielewski, M. R., Han, S., Sherwin, M. S., Awschalom, D. D., & Freedman, D. E. (2020). Trigonal Bipyramidal V3+Complex as an Optically Addressable Molecular Qubit Candidate. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 142(48), 20400-20408.