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Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my family for giving me the moral supports I needed to carry out this research. Without their supports, I would never have believed I would be able to accomplish what I have thus far in this project. I want to thank Dr. Kalle Levon who gave me his professional opinions with respect to the project and the time he took out to help me analyze the data despite his busy schedule as the Chairman of the Department of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry at Polytechnic University Brooklyn, NY. I also want to thank my graduate student mentor, Ahn, who stood by me every step of the way in this project. Despite the six other projects he is working on, he managed to find the time to teach me and to help me whenever I needed his help. Without Ahn, I don't think there is any way I would have understood what I was doing in the laboratory. In addition, I also want to thank Dr. Luba, Art, and Dr. Weng and my teacher mentor, Dr. Olga Livanis, for the helps they gave me in various parts of my research and to Ciba Specialty Chemicals Corporation for performing the FTIRs. Finally, I want to thank Beverly Johnson, director of Youth in Engineering and Science (YES) Program and members of Polytechnic faculty. It was through the YES program that I was introduced to this research opportunity. It was the combined help and support of these wonderful people that made this research possible.
