This grant from the Organic Dynamics Program provides support for the continuing research of Dr. David M. Grant at the University of Utah. This work will afford new insights into the structures of highly unstable molecular species that will be studied at very low temperatures. Dr. Grant will utilize infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in combination with quantum mechanical calculations to measure previously inaccessible structural features of highly strained molecules and reactive intermediates. The investigation will focus on species that can only be isolated at cryogenic temperatures in an inert gas matrix. Appropriate doubly labeled precursors will be synthesized using both carbon and nitrogen isotopes in order to maximize the structural information obtained from the spectroscopic studies.
