Acquisition of Upgraded NMR Instrumentation for Chemistry Research, Education and Training

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

With this award from the Chemistry Research Instrumentation and Facilities: Departmental Multi-User Instrumentation program (CRIF:MU), Professor Albert Courey and colleagues from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) will acquire a console and cryoprobe to upgrade a 500 MHz NMR spectrometer. Projects that will be investigated include: (a) fullerene chemistry and organic materials, (b) reactions of electrophilic metal centers with aromatic heterocycles, (c) organic synthesis and synthetic methods development for the advancement of molecular discovery, (d) new tactics to create non-natural molecules, (e) development of new methods for the synthesis of natural products, and (f) development of new phosphine-catalyzed annulation reactions and their application to total synthesis and combinatorial chemistry. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools available to chemists for the elucidation of the structure of molecules. It is used to identify unknown substances, to follow the progress of chemical reactions, to characterize specific arrangements of atoms within molecules, and to study the dynamics of interactions between molecules in solids and in solution. Access to state-of-the-art NMR spectrometers is essential to chemists who are carrying out frontier research and training students in modern research techniques. The results from these NMR studies will have an impact in synthetic organic chemistry research at UCLA. The instrument will be available to users at California State University Los Angeles (CSULA) and Cal Poly.