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Salah Massoud, Ph.D.

Professor

Montgomery Hall, Room 220

P.O. Box 43700
Lafayette LA 70504
337-482-5672
ssmassoud@louisiana.edu

Education:

Ph.D. (Inorganic/Bioinorganic Chemistry), Boston University, Boston, MA, 1985
M.Sc. (Inorganic Chemistry), Alexandria University, Egypt, 1978
B.Sc. (Chemistry, Distinction with Hons.), Alexandria University, Egypt, 1974

Professional Bibliography

Research Interests:

Dr. Massoud’s research focuses on coordination chemistry relevant to biological systems and material sciences. This includes:

  • DNA Cleavage: We are interesting in synthesizing highly reactive artificial nucleases that can rapidly and selectively catalyze the cleavage of the P-O bonds in DNA and phosphodiesters under physiologicl conditions. A large number of mono and dinuclear Co(II) and Cu(II) complexes derived from pyridyl tripod amines and phenolic binucleating ligands were synthesized and characterized, and their catalytic hydrolysis in promoting the DNA cleavage as well as phosphodiester hydrolysis are tested.
     
  • Anticancer Compounds: The search for an effective therapeutic anti-tumor compounds requires lowering the therapeutical dosage of the drug and also reducing its toxicity. To achieve this target we testing a new series Cu(II) and Co(II) based different tripod amines that derived from heterocyclic bases such as pyrzolyl  and imidazolyl groups.
     
  • Carbon Dioxide Fixation: Recently, we have been involved in the synthesis of a series of polynuclear metal(II) complexes that efficiently can absorb the atmospheric CO2 from the air and convert it into carbonate that bridges several metal ions that can serve as the green chlorophyll and hence reduce the global warming.
We are also interested in the design of inorganic molecules of novel magnetic properties that can utilizes some applications in Material Sciences; Single Molecular Magnets (SMM) and Field-Induced Single-Ion Magents (SIMs) which have important applications in ultra-high density magnetic information storage.  The strategy for synthesizing these compounds depends on the assembly of paramagnetic centers (Cu2+, Ni2+, Co2+) via bridging ligands. Other compartmental ligands accommodate two metal ions or more that can act as bridging ligands.  These ligands are used to synthesize polynuclear 3d-3d and 3d-4f metal ions.


Selected Publications:

A Complete List of Publications is also available.

Massoud, S. S.; Mautner, F. A.; Sakiyama, H.; Louka, F. R.; Salem, N. H. M.; Fischer, R. C.; Torvisco, A.; Guizouarn, T.; Velmurugang, G.; Comba, P.; Pointillart, F. Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2025 (ranked as Hot Paper by the journal) DOI: 10.1002/ejic.202400777   
“SMM Behavior in Distorted Trigonal Bipyramid, and Tetrahedral Cobalt(II) Complexes Based on Tripodal Tetradentate Phenolic-amines”.

Massoud, S. S.; Mautner, F. A.; Louka F. R.; Salem, N. M. H.; Fischer, R. C.; Ana Torvisco, A.; Vančo, J.; Belza, J.; Dvořák, Z.; Trávníček, Z., Dalton Trans. 2024, 53, 12261–12280. DOI: 10.1039/D4DT00942H
“Diverse Geometrical Zinc(II) Complexes Derived from Tripodal Phenoxido-amines as Potent Anticancer Agents”.

Louka, F. R.; Haghighijoo, Z.; Deshpande, A. A.; Didier, C.; Malek, A. F.; Fischer, R. C.; Torvisco A., Mautner, F. A.; Salem, N. M. H.; Massoud, S. S. Inorg. Chim. Acta 2024, 566, 122027. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2024.122027
“An Efficient Method for the Construction of Poly-amine Compounds Incorporating Pendant Phenolate Arms”.

Mautner, F. A.;  Fischer, R. C.;  Nakashima, K.; Handa, M.; Mikuriya, M.; Salem, N. M. H.;  Overby, G. J.; Maier, M. R.; Louka, F. R.; Massoud, S. S. New J. Chem. 2023,47, 15638 – 15649. doi: 10.1039/D3NJ02380J
“Structure and Magnetic Characterization of Bicompartmental [N6O2] Divalent Metal(II) Complexes of Bis(phenolato) Ligand bearing two Pendant Bis(pyridyl) Amine Arms”.

Massoud, S. S.; Louka, F. R.; Dial, M. T.; Salem, N. M. H.; Fischer, R. C.;  Torvisco, A.;  Mautner, F. A.; Nakashima, K.; Handa, M.; Mikuriya, M. Molecules 2023, 28, 2648. doi.org/10.3390/molecules28062648.
“Magnetostructural Properties of Some Doubly Bridged Phenoxido Copper(II) Complexes”.

Massoud, S. S;. Louka, F. R.; Salem, N. M. H.; Fischer, R. C.; Torvisco, A.;  Mautner, F. A.; Vančo, J.; Belza, J.; Dvořák, Z.;  Trávníček, Z. Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2023, 246, 114992. doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmech.2022.114992
“Dinuclear Doubly Bridged Phenoxido Copper(II) Complexes as Efficient Anticancer Agents”.

Mautner, F. A.; Bierbaumer, F.; Fischer, R. C.; Tubau, A.; Speed, S.; Ruiz, E.; Massoud, S. S.; Vicente, R.; Gomez-Coca, S. Inorg. Chem. 2022, 61, 11124–11136. doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c00958
“Insight into Spin Dynamics of Mononuclear Cerium(III) Single-molecule Magnets”. 

Mautner, F. A.; Bierbaumer, F.; Vicente, R.; Speed, S.; Tubau, A.;  Font-Bardía, M.; Fischer, R. C.; Massoud, S. S. Molecules 2022, 27, 1129. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules27031129.
“The luminescence and Magnetic Properties of 8-Coordinated Holmium(III)-trifluoro-phenyl- and -naphthalenyl--diketonate Complexes”.

Massoud, S. S.; Louka, F. R.;  Dial, M. T.; Malek, J. F.;  Fischer, R. C.;  Mautner, F. A.; Vančo, J.; Malina, T.; Dvořák, Z.; Trávníčeke, Z. Dalton Trans. 2021, 50, 11521–11534. https://doi.org/10.1039/D1DT01724A
“Identification of Potent Anticancer Copper(II) Complexes Containing Tripodal Bis[2-ethyl-di(3,5-dialkyl-1H-pyrazol-1-yl)]amine Moiety”.

Vicente, R.; Tubau, À.; Speed, S.; Mautner, F. A.; Bierbaumer, F.; Fischer, R. C.; Massoud, S. S. New J. Chem. 2021, 45, 14713 – 14723.  DOI: 10.1039/d1nj02583j.
“Slow Magnetic Relaxation and Luminescence Properties in Neodymium(III)-4,4,4-Trifluoro-1-(2-naphthyl)butane-1,3-dionato Complexes Incorporating Bipyridyl Ligands”.

Mautner, F. A.; Jantscher, P. V.; Fischer, R. C.; Torvisco, A.; Reichmann, K.;  Salem, N. M. H.; Gordon, K. J.; Louka, F. R.; Massoud. S. S. Crystals 2021, 11, 181. https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst11020181
“Coordination Polymers in Dicyanamido-cadmium(II) with Diverse Network Dimensionalities".

Kettenmann, S. D.; Nossol, Y.; Louka, F. R.; Legrande, J. R.; Marine, E.; Fischer, R. C.; Mautner, F. A.; Hergl, V.; Kulak, N.; Massoud, S. S. Inorganics 2021, 9,12. doi.org/10.3390/inorganics9020012
”Copper(II) Complexes with Tetradentate Piperazine-based Ligands: DNA Cleavage and Cytotoxicity”.

Massoud, S. S.; Perez, Z. E.; Courson, J. R.; Fischer, R. C.; Mautner, F. A.; Vančo, J.; Čajan, M.; Trávníček, Z. Dalton Trans. 2020, 49, 11715 – 11726. doi: 10.1039/D0DT02338H
“Slow Magnetic Relaxation in Penta-coordinate Cobalt(II) Field-Induced Single-ion Magnets (SIMs) with Easy-axis Magnetic Anisotropy”.

Mautner, F. A.; Berger, C.; Fischer, R. C.; Massoud, S. S.; Speed, S.; Vicente, R. Polyhedron 2019, 170, 622–629. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.poly.2019.06.034
  “Azido-cobalt(II) Coordination Polymers Exhibiting Slow Magnetic Relaxation and Metamagnetic Transition”.