This award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities (CRIF) Program will assist the Department of Chemistry at the University of California Berkeley acquire a NMR. This equipment will enhance research in a number of areas including the following: (1) application of organic synthesis to biologial problems including helix nucleators and macrocyclic peptidase inhibitors (2) synthesis and exploratory chemistry of organometallic compounds and the investigations of their reaction mechanisms (3) organic synthesis methodology and total synthesis of natural products including zaragozic acid and dictyoxetane (4) molecular recognition and catalysis in biological systems and applications of these studies to the design and synthesis of new molecules with novel biological properties, and (5) exploratory synthetic, structural and reactivity studies on novel inorganic systems including transition metal-silicon chemistry and metal-mediated routes to charge-transporting polymers. 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
