This award, made in the Organic Dynamics Program will support the research of Dr. Paul Kropp dealing with the surface properties and chemical behavior of alumina in the context of mediating organic reactions. Both mechanistic and synthetic aspects will be investigated and compared with earlier results using silica. Reactions that will be studied include dehydrohalogenation of alkyl halides, Cannizzaro oxidation-reduction of aldehydes, rearrangement of epoxides, and addition of HNCS to alkenes. Both structure-reactivity and stereochemistry will be probed. Surface oxide and aluminum sites will be characterized by quenching with acid and pyridine respectively, and observed by IR, Raman and ESR techniques. In addition to providing mechanistic insights into the role of alumina in mediating organic reactions, this research will lead to new synthetically useful methodologies which, by virtue of easily recovered solid catalysts, are environmentally benign.
