Three major problems will be studied by Professor Mislow. In the first project, a quantitative method will be developed to determine chirality. This will employ analytical and computational methods to relate the shape of chiral molecules to the magnitude of psuedoscalar observables. Two-dimensional models that were developed in the past will be extended to three-dimensional models. By this means the scope of the concept of prochirality will also be enlarged. In the second project, the details of enantiomer interconversion will be explored. Two aspects of this problem will be explored: (i) the relative importance of chiral pathways when achiral pathways are also energetically accessible, and (ii) the possibility of ratchet-type molecular motions. The third project will be to develop a system to recognize isomeric relationships. This will allow one to recognize structural similarities among molecules that are independent of chemical functionality and bonding connectivity. %%% This grant from the Organic Dynamics Program supports the continuing work of Professor Kurt Mislow at Princeton University. The research will be in the general area of stereochemistry, which is the study of the three-dimensional nature of molecules. Within this framework, the research will investigate this chirality of molecules, which refers to their "handedness," i.e., whether molecules have a right or left handed array. Mathematical methods will be used to determine chirality, which in some instances is difficult to identify. In another aspect of this research, pathways by which one chiral molecule is converted to its other chiral partner will be studied. Finally, a system will be developed to recognized molecules that have the same molecular composition, but differ in their three-dimensional array.
