With this renewal award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program continues its support of the work of Professor Steven R. Kass of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN. The research will extend the PI's work on the gas phase chemistry of energetic organic molecules. These experimental studies will be combined with high-level computations to investigate the reactions of zwitterions, antiaromatic molecules, reactive intermediates, and lithium substituted radicals. Zwitterions, species with both a positive and negative charge, of are of extraordinary significance in synthetic, biological, and materials chemistry. The proposed experiments are designed to provide fundamental information concerning the effects of charge separation on the structure and stability of these important species. Investigations of antiaromatic compounds and reactive intermediates will be carried out in order to determine the factors that contribute to the lifetimes and stabilities of these highly energetic molecules.
These studies are expected provide a wealth of thermodynamic and kinetic information that will impact upon applications ranging from proteomics to molecular synthesis.
