This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities Program will help the Department of Chemistry at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill acquire a modern 500 MHz NMR spectrometer and upgrade an existing Varian XL-400 MHz and a Bruker MSL- 300WB NMR Spectrometer. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including the following: transition metal catalyst olefin polymerization; total synthesis of complex natural products; polymerizations in supercritical fluids; engineering of non-genetic proteins; development of 2D pulsed field gradient NMR experiments, relationships between protein structure, stability and function; structure and design of ferroelectric liquid crystals; synthesis and application of phosphorous-capped metal clusters; and enantioselective reactions of metal complexes. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is the most powerful tool available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometry is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research. The results from these NMR studies are useful in the areas such as polymers, catalysis, and in biology.
