This award will support the research of Dr. Malcolm Forbes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The award is the starter grant portion of Dr. Forbes Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Chemistry and deals with the matrix isolation and characterization of reactive intermediates prepared by gas-phase photolysis. With the modification of a recently developed Electron Paramagnetic Resonance/Matrix Isolation apparatus and the use of well-established gas-phase photochemistry, a series of small alkyl biradicals and rigid, caged adamantyl biradicals will be investigated. Information regarding structure, reactivity and spin multiplicity will be obtained. Application of mass spectrometric and optical techniques will provide kinetic and structural analyses. Molecular orbital calculations will be performed on many of the compounds and intermediates proposed for study.
