This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at the University of Nebraska in the purchase of a gas chromatograph with a mass spectral detector (GC-MS). This state-of-the-art bench top GC-MS is essential to meet current and future research needs of the Chemistry Department, primarily in the synethic groups in the Department. This instrument is essential for research in the department which includes the following areas: 1) New catalytic transition metal mediated carbocyclizations, 2) Bioorganic approaches to novel therapeutic agents, (phosphate inhibitors, amino acid decarboxylase inhibitors, and a chemoenzymatic approach to the (-)-podophyllotoxin),3) New synthetic methods using highly active metals, 4) Bioorganic and synthetic chemistry of hydroperoxides (steroselective dioxygenation of 1,4 dienes and synthesis of hydroperoxides), 5) Intramolecular ferromagnetic coupling in di- and trinitroxides, 6) Theoretical and experimental physical organic chemistry (siloxane research and nitro and nitroso additions). %%% The gas chromatograph with the mass spectral detector (GC-MS) allows one to separate a mixture of compounds and to measure the molecule weight of each of the individual compounds. This information is one of the essential pieces of information needed in order to determine the molecular formula and/or the molecular structure of newly synthesized compounds.
