The Organic Dynamics program will fund the research of Professor Tanko at Virginia Polytechnic Institute to develop an unambiguous and simple experimental method which can be used to assess the importance of single electron transfer (SET) pathways in which nucleophiles react with carbonyl groups. Specific substrates which undergo rapid irreversible rearrangement upon one-electron reduction will be constructed and used as radical anion clocks to measure the temporal behavior of events associated with SET in a selected group of organic reactions. The significance of this research is that it addresses fundamental issues of the reactivity of oganic compounds and will lead to a better understanding of how radical anions can be exploited in synthetic organic methodology. This research will design and use certain carbon compounds whose architecture causes them to behave as a type of internal molecular clock which can monitor the way electrons behave at the molecular level when certain organic compounds react. Increased understanding about the timing of events at the molecular level will have important consequences for the production of new drugs and chemicals of commercial importance
