With this New Award, the Chemical Structure, Dynamics, and Mechanisms Program supports Professor Manish A. Mehta of Oberlin College in a project involving investigations of a series of peptides using X-ray and neutron diffraction, quantum chemical calculations and solid-state NMR spectroscopy. A combination of modern NMR techniques will characterize the carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 chemical shift tensors in a series of four glycine-central and four alanine-central tripeptides, which span a range of molecular geometries. In addition, X-ray and neutron diffraction, solid-state NMR and computational chemistry will be used to investigate weak hydrogen bonds in a homologous series of three peptides. These investigations of molecules with known structure will place solid-state NMR data on a more rigorous footing and strengthen the links between NMR and crystallographic data sets.
This project, which includes collaborative activities with experts in X-ray diffraction, neutron scattering, and NMR spectroscopy, will provide valuable research experiences for Oberlin College undergraduates. The grant will support ongoing summer workshops for high school chemistry teachers in order to bring developments in modern spectroscopy to U.S. high school classrooms.