With support from the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program in the Division of Chemistry, Professor Graham Cooks at Purdue University and his group will be studying the reactions of organic ions and the collection of their products in the open laboratory environment. Technological applications of chemistry depend upon both chemical reactions and on chemical analysis. Typical chemical reactions include those involved in making drugs, improving plastics, and breaking down biomass for new fuels. Typical chemical analyses include monitoring levels of specific drugs in blood, measuring pollutants in our rivers, and identifying the nature of white powders that are at the Senate Office building in envelopes. Mass spectrometry is one of the most widely used and sensitive methods of chemical analysis. This proposal involves attempts to use mass spectrometric methods to increase the rates of chemical reactions so as to make small quantities of sets of related materials quickly - that is to make libraries of compounds. These chemicals can be used for evaluating possible biologically active compounds that respond to certain enzymes or other purposes. Scaling up the chemistry that occurs in the mass spectrometer has the potential to generate new types of compounds by new routes, an example being fixing (incorporating) nitrogen into waxes (alkanes) by electrical discharges in air.
Broader impacts of this project will be in education in the design and fabrication of new instrumentation. Chemical instrumentation is one of the core capabilities in science and technology and experience in building instrumentation will be a skill that will have impact over the careers of the graduate students and undergraduates involved in this project. Prototyping efforts that has produced new types of instruments and led to commercialization will be continued. An annual short course on chemical instrumentation for about 100 people will enhance skills in this area. Research results from the project will form the basis for developing experiments in organic and analytical teaching laboratories, helping to more effectively teach organic reactivity.
