Probably the most important topic to be investigated under this grant is the proposed new extension of the NMR isotopic perturbation method (which originated in the Saunders Laboratory and has been applied to many problems involving carbocation structures and rearrangements) to cases where the rotation of a methyl group is isotopically perturbed. This innovation will have a number of important applications outside of the field of carbocations. It is expected that this method will be used to probe subtle differences on the non-equivalent CH bonds to methyl groups in environments of less than three-fold symmetry. The broader impacts are addressed by the expectation of having student involvement (including women) from Croatia and from Yale. It is expected that participation in the work supported by this grant would be a substantial aid to their education.
