US-Federal Republic of Germany Cooperative Research: Struc- tural Studies of Very Unstable Compounds of Theoretical Interest by Low Temperature X-ray Crystallography

该奖项支持W教授。E.莱斯大学的比卢普斯， 与研究所的罗兰博泽博士合作研究， 德国西部埃森大学无机化学。 的 他们联合研究的目的是确定 非常不稳定的分子 博斯博士和他的 同事们已经开发出一种装置， 微型区低温X射线衍射仪 用聚焦的红外光熔化过程。 他已经能够 测定不稳定无机化合物的精确结构。 比卢普斯博士开发了一种真空气相程序， 小环环烷烃和其它高应变的合成 有机化合物 他们的创新实验技术 它具有广泛但独立的适用性。 的计划 此次合作结合了他们几乎独特的专业知识， 化合物的合成和初步表征. 莱斯大学，然后确定其精确结构 在埃森使用不寻常的设备 小环环烷烃引起了人们极大的兴趣，因为它们 相对于它们无环异构体， 在意想不到的属性。 这一领域的进展因下列因素而减缓： 这种高度不稳定的结构分析的极端困难 化合物. Boese技术成功应用于 用低温X射线获得良好的结构数据 晶体学将是从事物理有机化学的布恩 在结构化学中。 此外，一旦获得该技术， 对于整个化学界来说，将在以下方面得到广泛应用： 不稳定小分子的结构分析。

This award supports Professor W. E. Billups of Rice University to collaborate in research with Dr. Roland Boese of the Institute for Inorganic Chemistry of the University of Essen, West Germany. The objective of their joint research is to determine the structures of very unstable molecules of theoretical interest. Dr. Boese and his co-workers have developed an apparatus to crystallize liquids on an x-ray diffractometer at low temperatures by means of a miniature zone melting procedure with focused infrared light. He has been able to determine very accurate structures of unstable inorganic compounds. Dr. Billups has developed a vacuum gas phase procedure for the synthesis of small ring cycloalkanes and other highly strained organic compounds. The innovative experimental techniques they have introduced have had wide but separate applicability. The plan for the collaboration combines their virtually unique expertise through the synthesis and preliminary characterization of the compounds at Rice University and then determination of their precise structures using the unusual equipment at Essen. Small ring cycloalkanes have aroused great interest because their high energy content relative to their acyclic isomers often results in unexpected properties. Progress in this area has been slowed by the extreme difficulty of structural analysis of such highly unstable compounds. The successful application of the Boese technique to the acquisition of good structural data by low temperature x-ray crystallography would be a boon to physical organic chemists engaged in structural chemistry. In addition, the technique, once accessible to the chemical community as a whole, will find wide application in the structural analysis of small unstable molecules.