With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports Professor Hans J. Reich of the University of Wisconsin whose research goal is a mechanism understanding of important organometallic reactions. The study involves main group organometallic compounds that are widely used for forming carbon-carbon bonds. They are also useful for forming carbon-X bonds and are, therefore, common precusors to other organometallic reagents (B, Zn, Ti, Al, Cu, Ce, Sn, Si, P, S, Se and Te) with important uses in synthetic chemistry. A newly developed rapid injection NMR apparatus will be used to study a number of aspects of organolithium chemistry for which current knowledge is very limited: the reactivity of individual aggregates of lithium reagents, the reactivity of carbonyl compounds, and even individual conformations of carbonyl compounds too reactive to be studied by laboratory time scale experiments (aldehydes, ketones, esters, amides). The proposed spectroscopic and reactivity studies of solvation and chelation together with product selectivity and rate studies will result in a better understanding of these phenomena, better predictability of the chemical reactions of organolithium reagents, and expansion of the applications of lithium reagents.
With this award, the Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry Program supports Professor Hans J. Reich of the University of Wisconsin whose research will have an impact in the area of synthetic organic chemistry by providing better insight into the behavior of important reactive species. The research will contribute to scientific manpower by providing a broad training in physical organic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, spectroscopy and organic synthesis for graduate and undergraduate students. Two computer programs of general utility for the analysis and interpretation of NMR data and the efficient presentation of chemical information have been written to support this research, and will continue to be enhanced. These programs have been made freely available to the chemical community on the web. Several web sites containing valuable information related to organic and organometallic chemistry in an easily accessible form have been created, and these will continue to be expanded and enhanced in the course of this project.
