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Research / Areas of Expertise
- Organic synthesis.
- Aromatic compounds.
- Liquid crystals.
- Materials chemistry.
Ken Maly obtained his PhD in chemistry from Queen's University under the direction of Professor Bob Lemieux in 2002. Following an Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council postdoctoral fellowship with Professor James Wuest at the Université de Montréal, he joined the Department of Chemistry at Wilfrid Laurier University as an assistant professor in 2006. His research is in the area of new organic materials. Specifically, his research focuses on the synthesis of novel aromatic compounds that self-assemble via specific interactions to form i) new liquid crystalline materials designed to exhibit charge transport properties, and ii) porous crystalline solids with potential applications in catalysis or gas storage. He also has an interest in the synthesis of new luminescent organic compounds.
Research in the Maly lab focuses on the synthesis of organic compounds that are designed to self-assemble in predictable ways to produce functional materials. Specifically, we are interested in developing methods for the synthesis of novel conjugated polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are expected to exhibit columnar liquid crystal phases, as well as luminescent compounds. We make use of a number of experimental methods, from techniques in synthetic organic chemistry and spectroscopic characterization to materials characterization such as polarized optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry.
- Laurier Teaching Fellow (2015).
- Laurier Award for Teaching Excellence (2014).
- Thieme Chemistry Journal Awardee (2013).
- Early Researcher Award from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation (2011).
- Ichikizaki Fund for Young Chemists (2009).
Please contact me about undergraduate and graduate research opportunities in the areas of organic synthesis and materials chemistry.
Book:
- Kenneth E. Maly, Synthesis of Aromatic Compounds, DeGruyter, 2022. [link]
Journal Articles:
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Delara Joekar, Sarah A. Englehart, Lana K. Hiscock, Kathryn M. M. Stephens, Emma Galejs, Paul D. Boyle, Kenneth E. Maly, Barry A. Blight, Steven M. Maley, and Louise N. Dawe, Pyrazolylthiourea Ligands for Tunable Solid-State Photoluminescence and Quenching-Based Zinc(II) Sensing, Crystal Growth & Design, 2026, 1695-1705. [link]
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Ayza Jabeena, Farwa Zainaba, Nafeesa Naeema, Amina Sadiqb, Kenneth E. Maly*, Ehsan Ullah Mughal*, Triphenylene as a Versatile Scaffold for Advanced Functional Materials, RSC Advances, 2026, 6625-6676. [link]
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Alexander Huber, Felix van der Vight, Viktoria Heising, Christoph Wölper, Oleg Prymak, Hatem M. A. Amin, Kenneth E. Maly, Jens Voskuhl, Controlling Structural and Photophysical Properties in Sequentially Methylated Phenoxazines, Organic Chemistry Frontiers, 2026, 956-966. [link]
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Alexander Huber, Lea Höfmann, Sophia Felicitas Stadtfeld, Christoph Wölper, Oleg Prymak, Kenneth E. Maly, Fabio Rizzo, Jens Voskuhl, Modulating the Favored Emissive State of Functionalized Phenoxazines in both Solution and the Solid-State, ChemPhotoChem, 2026, e202500291. [link]
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Zachary W. Schroeder, Emily K. Small, Steven M. Maley, and Kenneth E. Maly, Synthesis of a quinoxaline dimer and trimer via Yamamoto coupling, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2026, 158-168. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Athan T. Gogoulis, Madison Diamantopoulos, Vishvam S. Patel, Louise N. Dawe, Zachary M. Hudson, and Kenneth E. Maly, Reversible Nucleophilic Ring-Opening of Tetraoxapentacene Derivatives: Accessing New Materials for Thermally Activated Delayed Fluorescence, Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2024, 15598-15606. [link]
- Steven Mauries, Taylor O. Hope, Katie M. Psutka, Joshua Ledrew, Meghan Heer, Emma Guillet, Pedram Zand, Kenneth E. Maly, Mathieu Frenette, Unusual Photochemistry in Aromatic Dithioimides: Quantitative Thione Reduction Promoted by Ether Solvents, Chemistry- A European Journal, 2024, in press. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Vishvam S. Patel, A. Mohan Raj, Cephas Amoah, Aniket Jitendra Talreja, William G. Skene, Kenneth E. Maly, Luminescent N-Aryl Heteroacene Derivatives, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2023, 101 (3), 186-197. [link]
- Zachary W. Schroeder, Joshua LeDrew, Vanessa M. Selmani, Kenneth E. Maly, Preparation of Substituted Triphenylenes via Nickel-Mediated Yamamoto Coupling, RSC Advances, 2021, 39564-39569. [link]
- Alexander C. Anderson, Alysha J.N. Burnett, Lana Hiscock, Kenneth E. Maly, Joel T. Weadge, The Escherichia coli cellulose synthase subunit G (BcsG) is a Zn2+-dependent phosphoethanolamine transferase, Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2020, 6225-6235. [link]
- Rebecca E. Yardley, Joseph A. Paquette, Hi Taing, Heather M. Gaebler, S. Holger Eichhorn, Ian P. Hamilton, Kenneth E. Maly, Stabilization of Columnar Liquid Crystal Phases via Arene-Perfluoroarene Interactions, Organic Letters, 2019, 10102-10105. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Delara Joekar, Barbara Balonova, Marta Tomas Piqueras, Zachary Schroeder, Victoria Jarvis, Kenneth E. Maly, Barry Blight, Louise N. Dawe, Structures, Phase Behavior, and Fluorescent Properties of 3-phenyl-1-(pyridin-2-yl)-1H-pyrazol-5-amine and Its ZnCl2 Complex, Inorganic Chemistry, 2019, 58, 16317-16321. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Chengzhang Yao, W. G. Skene, Louise N. Dawe, and Kenneth E. Maly; Synthesis of Emissive Heteroacene Derivatives via Nucleophilic Aromatic Substitution. The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2019, 84, 15530-15537. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Kenneth E. Maly, and Louise N. Dawe; Crystal packing of a series of 1,2,3,4-substituted phenoxazine and dibenzodioxin heterocycles. Crystal Growth & Design, 2019, 19, 7298-7307. [link]
- Katie M. Psutka, Joshua LeDrew, Hi Taing, S. Holger Eichhorn, and Kenneth E. Maly, Synthesis and Self-Assembly of Liquid Crystalline Triphenylenedicarboxythioimides, The Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2019, 87, 10796-10804. [link]
- Lana K. Hiscock, Brooke M. Raycraft, Monika Wałesa-Chorab, Coralie Cambe, Alexandre Malinge, W. G. Skene, Hi Taing, S. Holger Eichhorn, Louise N. Dawe, and Kenneth E. Maly; Synthesis and Characterization of Liquid‐Crystalline Tetraoxapentacene Derivatives Exhibiting Aggregation‐Induced Emission. Chemistry: A European Journal, 2019, 1018-1028. [link]
- Kenneth E. Maly, William Buck, Louise N. Dawe; Open network structures from 2D hydrogen bonded networks: diaminotriazyl tetraoxapentacenes, CrystEngComm, 2017, 6401-6405.
- Joseph A. Paquette, Katie M. Psutka, Colin J. Yardley, and Kenneth E. Maly; Probing the structural features that influence the mesomorphic properties of substituted dibenz[a,c]anthracenes, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2017, 399-409.
- Joseph A. Paquette, Rebecca E. Yardley, Joann Wing-Yan Yu, S. Holger Eichhorn, and Kenneth E. Maly; Anthra- and Pentacenequinone Derivatives: Influence of Structure on the Formation of Columnar Liquid Crystalline Phases, New Journal of Chemistry, 2016, 5985-5988.
- Katie M. Psutka and Kenneth E. Maly; Synthesis and Characterization of Novel Dibenz[a,c]anthracenedicarboxythioimides: The Effect of Thionation on Self-Assembly, RSC Advances, 2016, 78784-78790.
- Katie M. Psutka, Joshua Williams, Joseph A. Paquette, Oliver Calderon, Kevin J. A. Bozek, Vance E. Williams, and Kenneth E. Maly; Synthesis of Substituted Dibenz[a,c]anthracenes and an Investigations of Their Liquid Crystalline Properties, European Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2015, 1456-1463.
- Katie M. Psutka, Kevin J. A. Bozek, and Kenneth E. Maly; Synthesis and Mesomorphic Properties of Novel Dibenz[a,c]anthracenedicarboximides, Organic Letters, 2014, 5442-5445.
- Caitlin L. Williamson, Kenneth E. Maly, and Stephen L. MacNeil; Synthesis of Imidazolium Room-Temperature Ionic Liquids A Modification of the Procedure of Dzyuba, Kollar and Sabnis, Journal of Chemical Education, 2013, 90, 799-801.
- Joseph A. Paquette, Colin J. Yardley, Katie M. Psutka, Melissa A. Cochran, Oliver Calderon, Vance E. Williams, and Kenneth E. Maly; Dibenz[a,c]anthracene Derivatives Exhibiting Columnar Mesophases over Broad Temperature Ranges, Chemical Communications, 2012, 8210-8212.
- Kenneth E. Maly; Acenes vs N-Heteroacenes: The Effect of N-Substitution on the Structural Features of Crystals of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, Crystal Growth and Design, 2011, 5628-5633.
- Kenneth E. Maly, Eric Gagnon, James D. Wuest; Engineering Crystals with Abnormally Weak Molecular Cohesion, Chemical Communications, 2011, 5163-5165.
- Phillip A. Kerneghan, Shira D. Halperin, David L. Bryce, and Kenneth E. Maly; Postsynthetic Modification of an Imine-Based Microporous Organic Network, Canadian Journal of Chemistry, 2011, 577-582.
- Andrew J. Frank, Jacob Rawski, Kenneth E. Maly, and Vladimir Kitaev. "Environmentally Benign Aqueous Oxidative Catalysis using AuPd/TiO2 Colloidal Nanoparticle System Stabilized in the Absence of Organic Ligands." Green Chemistry, 2010, 12, 1615-1622.
- Andrew J. Frank, Nicole Cathcart, Kenneth E. Maly, and Vladimir Kitaev. "Synthesis of Silver Nanoprisms with Variable Size and Investigation of Their Optical Properties." Journal of Chemical Education, 2010, 87, 1098-1101.
- Eric Gagnon, Shira D. Halperin, Valerie Metivaud, Kenneth E. Maly, and James D. Wuest. "Tampering with Molecular Cohesion in Crystals of Hexaphenylbenzenes." Journal of Organic Chemistry, 2010, 75, 399-406.
- Philip T. Lynett and Kenneth E. Maly. "Synthesis of Substituted Trinaphthylenes via Aryne Cyclotrimerization." Organic Letters, 2009, 3726-2729.
- Kenneth E. Maly. "Assembly of Nanoporous Organic Materials from Molecular Building Blocks." Journal of Materials Chemistry, 2009, 19, 1781-1787.
Contact Info:
E: kmaly@wlu.ca
T: 548-889-3770
Office location: BA403A (Bricker Academic Building, Waterloo campus)
Languages spoken: English, French