With this award from the Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) and support from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation Program (CRIF), Professor James Nowick from the University of California Irvine and colleagues Vy Dong and Christopher Vanderwal will acquire a cryoprobe (broad band and fluorine observe, BBFO) that will be installed on a 600 MHz NMR spectrometer. This attachment will greatly increase the sensitivity of the spectrometer at a fraction of the cost of new spectrometer and will allow research in a variety of fields such as those that accelerate chemical reactions of significant economic importance, as well as the study of biologically relevant species. In general, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, to characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The results from these NMR studies will have an impact in synthetic organic/inorganic chemistry, materials chemistry and biochemistry. This instrument will be an integral part of teaching as well as research by postdoctoral, graduate and undergraduate students at the University of California at Irvine and will also impact outreach activities involving K-12 programs that target schools with predominantly minority populations.
The award is aimed at enhancing research and education at all levels, especially in areas such as (a) developing mechanisms and metal-catalyzed methods; (b) catalytic hydroacylation; (c) designing molecules and materials that capture carbon monoxide; (d) synthesizing linked aza-phenanthrenes; (e) developing new approaches for stereoselective formation of quaternary carbon stereocenters and fragment coupling; (f) synthesizing batrachotoxin and its analogues; and (g) chemical synthesis of complex bioactive natural products.
