Mechanistic Inquiry
We employ a battery of analytical techniques to study mechanism in reactions developed in our laboratory. See a sampling of techniques we use below.
Transient Absorption Spectroscopy
Excited states of organic molecules are very short lived, typically only nanoseconds, so to study mechanism, we turn to ultra-fast techniques like transient absorption spectroscopy. Housed in the CHASE research facility in the Department of Chemistry, we have access to nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy to study excited states of organic catalysts and radical ion intermediates.
Cyclic Voltammetry
It all starts with moving electrons around and what potentials are required for accessing various redox states. Our laboratory routinely utilizes electrochemistry as a starting point to study mechanism in organic chemistry and we have even measured several hundred redox potentials of common organic molecules to provide a resource to the synthetic community.
DFT Calculations
Sometimes informative mechanistic experiments are too difficult or often impossible to design, so we turn to density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Students learn basic DFT energy calculations, transition state modeling and charge density distribution.
Kinetics via Photo NMR
Acquiring kinetic data via NMR presents a challenge for photochemical reactions - introduction of light to the sample! Fortunately, we have a fiber optic LED setup that allows for in-situ NMR kinetics to allow us to perform classical kinetic studies.