Edit My Profile

Integrated Search Menu

Vladimiro Mujica

Profile photo
School of Molecular Sciences
Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1604
PSM-Nanoscience
Director, PSM-Nanoscience
Faculty w/Admin Appointment, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1604
Center for Biological Physics
Professor
Faculty, TEMPE Campus, Mailcode 1604
Biography

Vladimiro Mujica's undergraduate education in chemistry was from the Universidad de Concepción in Chile and the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Venezuela.  He received a Ph.D. degree in quantum chemistry from Uppsala University in Sweden in 1985.  He was a visiting professor at the University of Tel Aviv, Professor of chemistry at the Universidad Central de Venezuela and Research Professor at Northwestern University.  In 2009 he joined the faculty at ASU.  His research interests are in the areas of theoretical chemistry, nanoscience, electron transfer, solar energy, quantum relaxation theory and nanophotonics.

Education

Ph.D., Uppsala, 1985

Research Interests

Our research is centered on modeling the behavior of complex physical and chemical systems. We are particularly interested in the description of quantum effects in the emerging behavior of systems of nanoscopic dimensions. Nanosystems may have very different optical, magnetic, chemical and electrical properties compared to the bulk system of the same material. Size and quantum effects determine these variations and we try to describe how they translate into the observed experimental behavior.

Our research is strongly guided and influenced by the interaction with experimental groups. This is of special importance in the modeling of nanosystems because of the complexity of the emerging physics and chemistry. We have ongoing research efforts with a strong international cooperation in several major areas:

  • Electron transport in molecule-electrode interfaces.
  • Electron transfer.
  • Nanophotonics.
  • Nanomagnetism.
  • Solar energy.
Publications
  • Gunawan, A; Li, HC; Lin, CH; Buttry, DA; Mujica, V ; Taylor, RA; Prasher, RS ; Phelan, PE. The amplifying effect of natural convection on power generation of thermogalvanic cells. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HEAT AND MASS TRANSFER (2014).
  • Krishna, KS ; Tarakeshwar, P ; Mujica, V; Kumar, CSSR. Chemically Induced Magnetism in Atomically Precise Gold Clusters. Small (2014).
  • Megiatto, JD; Mendez-Hernandez, DD ; Tejeda-Ferrari, ME ; Teillout, AL ; Llansola-Portoles, MJ; Kodis, G ; Poluektov, OG ; Rajh, T ; Mujica, V ; Groy, TL ; Gust, D ; Moore, TA ; Moore, AL. A bioinspired redox relay that mimics radical interactions of the Tyr-His pairs of photosystem II. Nature Chemistry (2014).
  • Roy, S ; Mazinani, SKS ; Groy, TL ; Gan, L ; Tarakeshwar, P ; Mujica, V; Jones, AK. Catalytic Hydrogen Evolution by Fe(II) Carbonyls Featuring a Dithiolate and a Chelating Phosphine. INORGANIC CHEMISTRY (2014).
  • Tarakeshwar, P ; Palma, JL ; Finkelstein-Shapiro, D ; Keller, A ; Urdaneta, I ; Calatayud, M ; Atabek, O ; Mujica, V. SERS as a Probe of Charge-Transfer Pathways in Hybrid Dye/Molecule-Metal Oxide Complexes. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C (2014).
  • Tarakeshwar, P ; Palma, JL ; Holland, GP ; Fromme, P ; Yarger, JL ; Mujica, V. Probing the Nature of Charge Transfer at Nano-Bio Interfaces: Peptides on Metal Oxide Nanoparticles. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS (2014).
  • Urdaneta, I ; Keller, A ; Atabek, O ; Palma, JL ; Finkelstein-Shapiro, D ; Tarakeshwar, P ; Mujica, V ; Calatayud, M. Dopamine Adsorption on TiO2 Anatase Surfaces. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY C (2014).
  • Urdaneta, I ; Pilme, J ; Keller, A ; Atabek, O ; Tarakeshwar, P ; Mujica, V ; Calatayud, M. Probing Raman Enhancement in a Dopamine-Ti2O4 Hybrid Using Stretched Molecular Geometries. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY A (2014).
  • Varela, S ; Medina, E ; Lopez, F ; Mujica, V. Inelastic electron scattering from a helical potential: transverse polarization and the structure factor in the single scattering approximation. JOURNAL OF PHYSICS-CONDENSED MATTER (2014).
  • A Gunawan, CH Lin, DA Buttry, V Mujica, RA Taylor, RS Prasher, PE Phelan. Liquid Thermoelectrics: Review of Recent And Limited New Data of Thermogalvanic Cell Experiments. Nanoscale and Microscale Thermophysical Engineering (2013).
  • Finkelstein-Shapiro, Daniel ; Petrosko, Sarah Hurst ; Dimitrijevic, Nada M.; Gosztola, David ; Gray, Kimberly A. ; Rajh, Tijana ; Tarakeshwar, Pilarisetty ; Mujica, Vladimiro. CO2 Preactivation in Photoinduced Reduction via Surface Functionalization of TiO2 Nanoparticles. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY LETTERS (2013).
  • Mendez-Hernandez, Dalvin D.; Tarakeshwar, Pilarisetty ; Gust, Devens; Moore, Thomas A. ;Moore, Ana L.; Mujica, Vladimiro. Simple and accurate correlation of experimental redox potentials and DFT-calculated HOMO/LUMO energies of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. JOURNAL OF MOLECULAR MODELING (2013).
  • Mentovich, Elad D. ; Rosenberg-Shraga, Natalie ; Kalifa, Itsik ; Gozin, Michael; Mujica, Vladimiro ; Hansen, Thorsten; Richter, Shachar. Gated-Controlled Rectification of a Self-Assembled Monolayer-Based Transistor. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C 117 (2013).
  • Rosenberg, Richard A.;Symonds, Joshua M.; Kalyanaraman, Vijayalakshmi; Markus, Tal; Orlando, Thomas M.;Naaman, Ron; Medina, Ernesto A.; Lopez, Floralba A.; Mujica, Vladimiro). Kinetic energy dependence of spin filtering of electrons transmitted through organized layers of DNA. The Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2013).
  • S Roy, V Mujica, MA Ratner 139 (7), 074702. Chemistry at molecular junctions: Rotation and dissociation of O2 on the Ag (110) surface induced by a scanning tunneling microscope. The Journal of Chemical Physics (2013).
  • Dalvin D. Méndez-Hernández & Pilarisetty Tarakeshwar & Devens Gust & Thomas A. Moore & Ana L. Moore & Vladimiro Mujica. Simple and accurate correlation of experimental redox potentials and DFT-calculated HOMO/LUMO energies of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Journal of Molecular Modeling (2012).
  • Franco, Hector; Puerta, Luis; Murgich, Juan; Mujica, Vladimiro. Simulation of adsorption on surfaces from ab initio calculations on clusters of nano gold atoms. REVISTA MEXICANA DE FISICA (2012).
  • Medina, Ernesto ; Lopez, Floralba ; Ratner, Mark A. ; Mujica, Vladimiro. Chiral molecular films as electron polarizers and polarization modulators. Europhysics Letters (2012).
  • Alberto Roldán, Francesc Illas, Pilarisetty Tarakeshwar, and Vladimiro Mujica. "Stability and Quenching of Plasmon Resonance Absorption in Magnetic Gold Nanoparticles". J. Phys. Chem. Lett (2011).
  • Nicolas Renaud, Mark A. Ratner and Vladimiro Mujica. "A Stochastic Surrogate Hamiltonian Approach of Coherent and Incoherent Exciton Transport in the FMO complex". J. Chem. Phys (2011).
  • P. Tarakeshwar, D. Finkelstein Shapiro, T. Rajh and V. Mujica. Quantum Confinement Effects on the Surface Enhanced Raman Spectra of Hybrid Systems Molecule-TiO2 Nanoparticles. Int. J. Quantum Chem (2011).
  • P. Tarakeshwar, D. Finkelstein-Shapiro, S. J. Hurst, T. Rajh and V. Mujica. "Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering on Semiconducting Oxide Nanoparticles: Oxide Nature, Size, Solvent, and pH Effects". J. Phys. Chem. C (2011).
  • Finkelstein-Shapiro, Daniel, Tarakeshwar, Pilarisetty, Rajh, Tijana, Mujica, Vladimiro. Photoinduced Kinetics of SERS in Bioinorganic Hybrid Systems A Case Study Dopamine-TiO2. JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY B Volume: 114 (2010).
  • Herrmann, Carmen, Solomon, Gemma, Subotnik, Joseph E., Mujica, Vladimiro, Ratner, Mark A. Ghost transmission: How large basis sets can make electron transport calculations worse. JOURNAL OF CHEMICAL PHYSICS (2010).
  • Tim Hansen, Thorsten Hansen, Vaida Arcisauskaite, Kurt V. Mikkelsen*, Jacob Kongsted, and Vladimiro Mujica. Nonlinear Optical Effects Induced by Nanoparticles in Symmetric Molecules†. Journal of Physical Chemistry C (2010).
  • Anthony Musumeci, David Gosztola, Tara Schiller, Nada M. Dimitrijevic,Vladimiro Mujica, Darren Martin and ,Tijana Rajh. SERS of semiconducting nanoparticles (TiO2 hybrid composites). Journal of the American Chemical Society (2009).
  • Michael D. Shultz, Scott Calvin, Fernando González-Jimenez, Vladimiro Mujica, Blaine C. Alleluia and Everett E. Carpenter. Gold-Coated Cementite Nanoparticles: An Oxidation-Resistant Alternative to Alpha-Iron. Chemistry of Materials (2009).
  • Sina Yeganeh, Mark A. Ratner, Ernesto Medina and Vladimiro Mujica. Chiral Electron Transport: Scattering Through Helical Potentials. Journal of Chemical Physics (2009).
Research Activity
Fall 2017
Course NumberCourse Title
CHM 116General Chemistry II
PHY 792Research
Spring 2017
Course NumberCourse Title
PHY 792Research
PHY 795Continuing Registration
Fall 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
MSE 524Advanced Thermodynamics
CHM 541Advanced Thermodynamics
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
Spring 2016
Course NumberCourse Title
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
PHY 795Continuing Registration
Fall 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
Spring 2015
Course NumberCourse Title
CHM 341Elementary Physical Chemistry
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
PHY 795Continuing Registration
Fall 2014
Course NumberCourse Title
MSE 524Advanced Thermodynamics
CHM 541Advanced Thermodynamics
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
Spring 2014
Course NumberCourse Title
CHM 341Elementary Physical Chemistry
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
PHY 795Continuing Registration
Fall 2013
Course NumberCourse Title
MSE 524Advanced Thermodynamics
CHM 541Advanced Thermodynamics
CHM 545Quantum Chemistry
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
Spring 2013
Course NumberCourse Title
CHM 546Molecr Spectroscopy/Group Thry
NAN 591Seminar
PHY 792Research
Presentations
  • Vladimiro Mujica. From Photosynthesis to Sensors, Solar Cells and Photovoltaics: How Is Theoretical Chemistry Helping Us to Understand How They Work and Control the Design of Devices. QUITEL 2014 (Nov 2014).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Molecular Spin Filters. 10th Congress of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (Oct 2014).
  • Y. Orozco-Gonzalez, P. Tarakeshwar, S. Canuto, and Vladimiro Mujica. Resonant Nature of the Raman Response and Solvent Effects in Molecule-Metal Oxide Nanoparticles Hybrids. 8th Photodynamics (Oct 2014).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Computational Modeling and Simulation of Nanostructured Materials and Devices. Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics, Photonics and Renewable Energy From Materials to Devices to (Mar 2014).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Molecular Chiral Effects in Interfacial Electron Transfer. ARO workshop on "Surface Plasmons, Metamaterials, and Catalysis" at Rice University (Oct 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Chair, Talk Session 4. ARO workshop on "Surface Plasmons, Metamaterials, and Catalysis" at Rice University (Oct 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Lectures on Quantum Theory of relaxation at the Center for Exploitation of Solar Energy, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen. ’Molecular Dynamics and Chemical Kinetics: Exploitation of Solar Energy’ Summer School on Photophys (Aug 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. The influence of spin polarization in biological electron transfer. Quantum Transport in Nanoscale Molecular Systems (Jul 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. The Influence of Spin Polarization Electron Transfer Processes in Chiral Molecules. XXXIX International Conference of Theoretical Chemists of Latin Expression, Quitel, Granada, Spain (Jun 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. SERS as a Probe of Interfacial Charge Transfer in Hybids Molecule/Metal Oxide. West Virginia University NanoSAFE Bioelectronics and Biosensing Symposium: Charge Trans (Apr 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Magnetic Phenomena. ESPM VII, Electronic Structure and Processes at Molecular based Interfaces- the 7th Edition. Weizma (Apr 2013).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Molecules as spin polarizers. A theoretical examination of models and challenges. Faculty of Chemistry Colloquium, Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel (Dec 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Chiral molecular films as electron polarizers and polarization modulators. Telluride Science Research Center Workshop: Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Chiral Structures (Jun 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Short course in Nanoscience. 2012: Jornadas de Investigación, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Central de Venezuela (May 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Electronic and vibrational properties of magnetic core-shell nanoparticles. 2012: EuCAP 2012, Prague, Czech Republic (Mar 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Electron Transmission and Molecular Spin Filters. 2012: Sanibel Symposium, February 19-24, St. Simons Island, GA, U.S.A (Feb 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. A Unified Theory of Electron Transport and Electron Transfer in Molecular Interfaces. 2012: "Summer Talks in Santiago III: Recent Developments in Quantum Chemistry" honoring Peter Politz (Jan 2012).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Electron Transport in Electrode-Molecule Junctions. Nano and Giga Challenges in Electronics, Photonics and Renewable Energy (Sep 2011).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Molecular spin filters: Recent advances. Quantum Transport in Nanoscale Molecular Systems (Aug 2011).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. The role of photo-excited states of molecule-semiconductor nanoparticles hybrids in nanosensors, solar cells and photo-catalysis. 9th WATOC (Jul 2011).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Spin polarized electrons and molecular chirality. III International Congress in Theoretical and Computational Physical Chemistry, Caracas, Venezuela (Dec 2010).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Converging Technologies: Nanoscience, Bio-technology and Information Technology. VII Congreso Nacional y 1er Congreso Internacional de Investigación, Univ. of Carabobo, Venezuela (Dec 2010).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Molecular Spin Filters. TSRC Electronic and Magnetic Properties of Chiral Structures and their Assemblies (Jul 2010).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Estados foto-excitados de sistemas híbridos moléculas-semiconductor: Aplicaciones a celdas solares y nanosensores. Jornadas de Investigacion, Facultad de Ciencias, UCV, Caracas, Venezuela (May 2010).
  • Vladimiro Mujica and Luis Nunez. Social Impact of Nanotechnology. Presidential Lecture Series, Northeastern Illinois University (Sep 2009).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. The Influence of Chirality in Electron Transport in Molecular Interfaces. 13th International Congress of Quantum Chemistry, Helsinki, Finland (Jun 2009).
  • Vladimiro Mujica. Electronic Transport in Chiral Interfaces. II Congreso de Fisico-Quuimica, Choroni, Venezuela (Mar 2009).
Service
  • PSM in Nanoscience, Associate Director (2010 - Present)
  • PSM in Nanoscience, Associate Director (2010 - Present)
  • PSM in Nanoscience, Associate Director (2010 - Present)
  • PSM in Nanoscience, Associate Director (2010 - Present)
  • Chemistry Graduate Committe, Member (2010 - Present)
  • Chemistry Graduate Committe, Member (2010 - Present)
  • Chemistry Graduate Committe, Member (2010 - Present)
  • Chemistry Graduate Committee, Member (2010 - Present)
Expertise Areas
Physical Chemistry
Nanoscience
Solar Energy Systems