North Carolina State U. This CAREER award is made in the Organic Dynamics Program in support of the research and teaching activities of Dr. David Schultz. The research will focus on the design, synthesis, and characterization of molecular magnetic materials based on tetraarylporphyrins. The porphyrin nucleus will provide sites for attaching organic free radical groups as well as binding sites for metals, allowing for the preparation of extended materials including charge transfer complexes and coordination polymers through complexation with multidentate ligands. Specifically, metal tetraarylporphyrin units with four free radical substituents will be oxidized to give pentaradical systems which can undergo high spin coupling. Characterization will be by EPR, crystallographic structure determination and magnetometer measurements. Magnetization measurements will be complemented by molecular modeling of intramolecular spin-spin interactions. Dr. Schultz' teaching plan will focus on the development of animation software for three dimensional visualization of organic chemistry structures and reactions. A salient feature will be incorporating the animations into the organic chemistry courses at North Carolina State and making them available to the chemistry community via the Mosaic World-Wide-Web. Metal porphyrin-based organic magnetic materials are of inherent interest both for a fundamental understanding of the molecular basis of magnetism and their possible application to magnetic coatings and composites and radical probes in biological systems. The involvement of both graduate and undergraduate students in the implementation of the research will have a significant educational value.
