Lamellar x-ray diffraction was studied from thin films of L-α-1,2-dipalmitoyl lecithin (DPL) and a 1:1 mixture (BrDPL) of L-α-l-palmitoyl-2-(9- bromopaimitoyl) lecithin and its 10-bromo analog. The specimens had high lamellar order, with an upper bound on the mosaicity of 6 mrad (0.4°) for DPL and BrDPL. With various water contents,...
In this dissertation, the spectroscopic properties and thermodynamic stability of a class of materials known as metal oxo and hydroxo clusters are studied. In aqueous solutions, many metals can aggregate into discrete clusters of metals bridged by oxo or hydroxo ligands. These clusters are of particular interest to us for...
In this report, two studies are presented that utilize computations to predict and elucidate the reaction mechanisms of two different copper catalyzed reactions. Each study provides insight into the various chemical transformations, as well as the how and why behind regioselectivity and isotopic selectivity. The importance of this research is...
Two studies were conducted involving rare earth elements. In the
first study, the use of rare earth diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid
(DTPA) complexes as stable actiable tracers, a method of stable-isotope
tracing with post-sampling neutron activation analysis, was explored.
The persistence of rare earth DTPA complexes in estuarine waters was
measured in...
Femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS) is a powerful ultrafast technique which can track photoinduced excited state structural events on femtosecond (fs) to picosecond (ps) timescales. In addition to high temporal and spectral resolutions, FSRS provides a broad spectral window from ca. 100—2000 cm-1 for detection, enabling the direct mapping of...
The first part of this manuscript is about the total synthesis of the aspidosperma alkaloids leuconoxine, melodinine E and mersicarpine. Our synthetic strategy used a radical translocation-conjugate addition cascade to construct the core of the natural product. Specifically, a vinyl radical was generated from the homolysis of the C–I bond...
Pyrolysis of 4-cycloheptene-l-methyl acetate under flow conditions at 285° gives only rearranged bicyclic acetates and hydrocarbons rather than the anticipated simple elimination product methylenecyclohept- 4-ene. These rearranged acetates have the same structures and are formed in virtually the same relative percentages as those observed in the "π- route" solvolysis of...