Grant: Research Tools and Instruments - Category 1 (<$150,000)

The majority of industrial chemical reactions and many synthetic transformations of organic compounds are carried out by transition-metal catalysts.  Changes in the arrangement of electrons at the catalytic metal centre have the potential to play a critical role in the efficiency and selectivity of these catalysts, so that understanding and exploiting the factors that control these properties can lead to the rational design of improved catalytic systems.  An integrated synthetic, mechanistic, and computational approach to probe the effects of electronic and geometric changes on the fundamental reactions of well-defined and isolated models for catalytic intermediates will afford valuable insights to guide the development of the next generation of designer catalysts.       The proposed chemical investigations involve the manipulation of highly air- and moisture-sensitive materials, so that the atmosphere in which the compounds are generated, isolated, and characterized must be rigorously free of both oxygen and water.  The simplest and most versatile means to do so is through the use of an inert-atmosphere glove box, an enclosed space filled with inert nitrogen gas and equipped with various accessories to allow for the storage, reaction, and isolation of highly sensitive chemical compounds.         The glove box system described in this proposal comes equipped with a number of accessories that make possible start-to-finish chemical manipulations.  A cold well and freezer allow for low-temperature reaction and isolation of chemical compounds.  A high-precision analytical balance is used for weighing of chemical reagents.  The atmospheric purity is maintained by continual passage of the interior atmosphere through a catalytic trap, and various antechambers permit the transport of materials into and out of the box.  Sensors give warning should the oxygen or moisture levels within the box exceed an acceptable threshold.  The result is an integrated system that makes possible all aspects of chemical synthesis inside a rigorously air- and moisture-free environment.