This grant in Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry provides support for the research of Dr. Richard Johnson, University of New Hampshire. The work is focused on the mechanisms of selected photochemical (light-induced) reactions of organic compounds. Such reactions are important in the visual process and form the basis of numerous industrial applications. Several fundamental problems will be studied. The first concerns a class of molecules known as cumulenes, which contain multiple pi bonds. Specific goals include detailed mechanistic studies of known reactions, investigation of the potential for synthesis of new and complex structures, and exploratory experiments with new types of cumulenes. A second emphasis is on asymmetric photoreactions, that is those which generate or modify chirality in organic compounds. Experiments to study chirality in energy transfer, reactions of chiral biaryls, and applications of circularly polarized light will be carried out. In addition, ab initio quantum mechanical methods will be applied to the study of transient intermediates in photchemical reactions. One specific investigation concerns trans-benzene, a new C6H6 isomer, which may be the key to much of the poorly understood photochemistry of benzene.
