In this project in the Organic Dynamics Program, Professor Christopher S. Foote will study the "Chemistry of Singlet Oxygen and Related Topics" in the Chemistry Department at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He will explore the biological aspects, chemistry, photochemistry, and spectroscopy of singlet oxygen. The chemistry of singlet oxygen is of tremendous pathologic, therapeutic, and industrial significance to a society vitally dependent on atmospheric oxygen and sunlight for its existence. Photooxidation plays a major role in the degradation of materials and in a number of pathological processes. Photooxygenations involving singlet oxygen and electron transfer are being studied, with the goal of elucidating the borderlines for various mechanisms. Mechanistic tests are being developed for intermediates in these reactions such as exiciplexes, zwitterions, and perepoxides. Isotope effects, trapping experiments, and direct time-resolved spectroscopic probes for intermediates are being used, and novel unstable products of some reactions are being characterized at low temperatures.
