His main area of research involves studies into the solution and solid-state structural and thermodynamic properties of alkyllithium, alkali amide, alkoxide, and enolate compounds using heteronuclear NMR, X-ray diffraction, reaction calorimetry and computational methods. These studies have been published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society and the Journal of Chemical Crystallography. Dr. Nichols has also been involved in various environmental water chemistry research and service projects including evaluating the effectiveness of constructed wetlands to remediate urban run-off and bioaugmentation in preventing excessive algal and other plant growth and assisted in the Euclid Creek Watershed volunteer monitoring program. Dr. Nichols is also involved in developing undergraduate laboratory experiments including those involving studying the keto-enol equilibrium of beta-dicarbonyls using NMR, the use of GC/MS and chemometrics to analyze various designer and impostor fragrances (colognes and perfumes) and to study the oxidation of lipids, and the preparation and characterization of a unique paramagnetic copper complex. Several manuscripts describing these experiments are in preparation and one has recently been published in the Journal of Chemical Education.
