This grant will provide support for the ongoing research program of Professor Xavier Creary at the University of Notre Dame. Kinetics, isotope effects, and product studies will be used to elucidate the mechanisms of organic reactions and to characterize reactive intermediates. Dihalodiazirines will be studied in order to provide evidence for the formation of a diaziryl anion intermediate. The possibility of a concerted cyclic elimination to give olefinic products under solvolysis conditions will be explored. Silyl substituted carbenes will also be synthesized and the migratory aptitude of silicon determined. %%% The intimate details of several important reactions that transform carbon containing molecules into new and interesting molecules will be determined. Independent synthesis of the suggested reaction intermediates in these important transformations will allow unambiguous evidence for their involvement. The possibility that the transfer of an electron will trigger some of these transformations will be examined by careful analysis of the reaction mixtures. It is anticipated that the results of this study will provide the basis for predicting the outcome of many reactions.
