About

Dr. Alexander M. Spokoyny is a faculty member at UCLA, where he has been a professor since 2014. His research program encompasses an interdisciplinary approach focusing on pressing problems in chemistry, biology, medicine, and materials science. He explores fundamentally new synthetic avenues, structural understanding, and applications for inorganic and organomimetic clusters. His work involves the development of an extensive and versatile synthetic toolbox, allowing for the functionalization of various polyhedral borane and carborane 3D cluster motifs. Specifically, he focuses on creating new ligand platforms with unique electronic and steric features, stable inorganic radicals, and multifunctional, atomically precise nanosized molecules. These efforts aim to reveal novel solutions to important problems in science and technology, including new reaction development, energy storage, and biomolecular recognition and labeling.

Research topics

• Chemistry
• Organic chemistry
• Composite material
• Chemical engineering
• Materials science
• Combinatorial chemistry
• Optoelectronics
• Chemical physics

Selected publications

• CCDC 2514933: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• Boron-Centered Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer

  ChemRxiv · 2026-02-09

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Proton-Coupled Electron Transfer (PCET) has been well-established in transition metal complexes, biomolecules, and organic compounds. In the majority of PCET reagent systems, hydrogen-atom equivalents are toggled predominantly at transition-metal centers or at heteroatomcontaining basic sites, most commonly amines, hydroxyl groups, or phosphines, where welldefined X-H bonds (X = N, O, P, or metal hydrides) provide the thermodynamic and kinetic framework for coupled proton-electron transfer. In this work, we demonstrate that a deliberately designed perfunctionalized redox-active boron cluster ( closo -B 6 Ph 6 2- ) can intrinsically mediate PCET, with the coupled proton and electron transfer events confined exclusively to boron atoms rather than being mediated by metals or heteroatom based functional groups, thereby representing the first unequivocal example of a purely boron-centered PCET process.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• CCDC 2514935: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• CCDC 2514942: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• Boron Cluster Oriented Superhydrophobic Surfaces

  ChemRxiv · 2026-05-06

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Hydrophobic coatings are critical for applications spanning anti-fouling and selfcleaning technologies. Conventional fluorinated materials rely on complex fabrication methods and often lack mechanical robustness and scalability. Here, we report a new class of solution-processable fluorinated coatings based on atomically precise closo-dodecaborate clusters densely functionalized with fluorinated carbon chains. Our approach to fabricating these boron oriented superhydrophobic surfaces (BOSS) coatings is based on flexible chemical design, allowing for tailored functionalization and easy scalability. This molecular design enables unprecedented chain packing density, yielding coating with surface free energy around 13 mJ/m2 and excellent water repellency. The coatings exhibit thermally triggered, controllable degradation, along with electrochemical activity, fire retardancy, and mechanical durability when applied to common substrates, providing a viable alternative to conventional fluoropolymer systems. Our findings establish three-dimensional boron cluster as effective scaffold for high-density functional group incorporation, enabling the design of robust, next-generation advanced coatings.

  PublisherDOI

• CCDC 2514940: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• CCDC 2514938: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• Atomically Precise Polyanionic Boron Cluster Agents with Broad-Spectrum Antiviral Activity

  Precision Chemistry · 2026-04-27

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  The development of antivirals capable of addressing infections from multiple viruses is critically needed, as underscored by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic and ongoing annual influenza epidemics. Polyanionic polymer and hybrid gold nanoparticle (AuNP) systems have both previously shown significant infection inhibition activity against a wide variety of enveloped viruses. However, both of these systems exhibit variability in molecular weight and charge density distribution, which makes detailed structure–activity relationships difficult to ascertain. In this work, we report the synthesis of well-defined, dodecaborate-based clusters that are densely surface functionalized with charged ligands. These compounds exhibit minimal cytotoxic effects against mammalian cells, and several structures possess promising antiviral activity against both human immunodeficiency virus (HIV-1) and cytomegalovirus (CMV). This library of compounds offers a promising scaffold from which the roles of ligand identity, molecule size, and charge density on antiviral activity can be further studied and may ultimately help guide future design of antiviral agents.

  PublisherDOI

• CCDC 2514939: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

• CCDC 2514934: Experimental Crystal Structure Determination

  The Cambridge Structural Database · 2026-05-11

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  An entry from the Cambridge Structural Database, the world’s repository for small molecule crystal structures. The entry contains experimental data from a crystal diffraction study. The deposited dataset for this entry is freely available from the CCDC and typically includes 3D coordinates, cell parameters, space group, experimental conditions and quality measures.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Inorganic Chemistry Tools for Bioconjugation, Recognition and Imaging

  NIH · $3.7M · 2017–2027

• CAREER: Phosphorescent Organic Light Emitting Diode Materials Featuring Multidentate Carborane-Based Ligands

  NSF · $600k · 2019–2024

• Metal Catalyzed CN and CS Bond Forming Reactions for Bioconjugation Targets

  NIH · $96k · 2012–2014

Frequent coauthors

• Arnold L. Rheingold

  University of California, San Diego

  161 shared

• Jonathan C. Axtell

  University of California, Los Angeles

  149 shared

• Dahee Jung

  124 shared

• Chad A. Mirkin

  Northwestern University

  102 shared

• Julia M. Stauber

  University of California, San Diego

  97 shared

• Kent O. Kirlikovali

  Northwestern University

  73 shared

• Rafal M. Dziedzic

  University of California, Los Angeles

  70 shared

• Heather D. Maynard

  California NanoSystems Institute

  69 shared

Labs

• Spokoyny, Alexander M. UCLA LabPI

Awards & honors

• Fellow (RSC) (2024)
• IIN Trailblazer Award, International Institute for Nanotechn…
• UCLA Community Service and Praxis Award (2022)
• UCLA Distinguished Teaching Award (2021)
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award (2020)