9418778 O'Leary This starter grant award to Pomona College will support the research of Professor Daniel O'Leary. The major focus of the research will be the synthesis and characterization of oligomeric model systems to better understand the solution properties of helical poly-(alkylisocyanates). The driving force for the helical preference is the minimization of steric repulsion of proximal pendant groups. Steric interactions at the microscopic level will be accurately assessed with dynamic NMR measurements and single-crystal X-ray crystallography. Controlled chemical synthesis of model oligomers will provide microscopic information on the structure and backbone dynamics of polyisocyanate and advance our understanding of phenomena such as the novel directing efects of tiny proportions of chiral monomers upon the overall chain conformation, amplification of a small per-residue deuterium isotope effect, and the solvent dependence of helix persistence length.
