Project Info

Time-resolved laser spectroscopy of multi-intermediate precursors

Reactive intermediates such as nitrenes and carbenes are extremely important species in chemistry and their precursors such as azides, diazo and diazirine compounds have found numerous applications as photoresists, photo-crosslinking agents, photo-affinity labels. Synthesis, characterization, and photophysics of polyazides are a significantly unexplored territory. Our laboratory has successfully synthesized several diazide molecules in the lab and we are now in the process of exploring their excited state and ground state properties. Once these properties are well understood, these molecules can be employed as tethering agents to connect two chemical scaffolds such as a drug molecule and a payload vehicle for drug delivery. Alternatively, these molecules can be used as linking agents to connect two catalysts in order to perform co-catalysis.

More Information

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781118560907.ch2

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja909327z

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja212085d

Grand Engineering Challenge: Engineer the tools of scientific discovery

Student Preparation

Qualifications

A junior level student or above.
Should have taken Org Chem and PChem courses, or taking them concurrently

Time Commitment

40 hours/month

Skills/Techniques Gained

Chemical synthesis, characterization, product studies, time-resolved laser spectroscopy. Also, possibly using high-performance computing facility to do chemical computations.

Mentoring Plan

Weekly individual meetings with the PI, and day-to-day interaction with the graduate student. In addition, the student will also be making group meeting presentations two times a semester.