Research Areas.
High throughput ultrafast photochemistry screening.
I am working as part of a collaboration with both synthetic organic and theoretical chemists to build a framework for rapidly screening and confirming the efficacy of predicted photochemical reactions. This involves quickly establishing common excited state structures using advanced computational techniques and directly computing their spectral signatures. This generates an assay of potential chemical reactions which are then validated on the order of minutes using rapid ultrafast molecular spectroscopy.
Photochemical generation of strained molecules
One area where photochemical reactions can have great impact is in the synthesis of molecular structures which have resisted traditional organic synthesis. A good example of this is strained four membered rings. Thermodynamic approaches encounter difficulty because the equilibrium is invariably tilted towards more stable structures but photochemical schemes may form these structures irreversibly and with good reaction yields. This has been demonstrated synthetically in the formation of fluorinated ladderenes which can be mechanochemically unzipped to form polyfluoroacetylene derivatives. My research has shown that the key photochemical isomerization steps are made both energetically accessible and chemoselective by the “perfluoro effect”. This ongoing project now seeks to guide synthesis of more complex strained structures such as cubane.