Photochemistry and Strained Molecules

有机动力学计划支持在达勒姆的新汉普郡大学理查德·约翰逊教授的指导下进行的光化学和应变分子的研究。通过实验和计算相结合的研究，Johnson教授探索了具有扭曲多键的高能有机化合物的形成和反应化学，包括小环1，2-二烯，如1，2-环丁二烯和1，2-环戊二烯，以及1，2，3-三烯，如1，2，3-环丁三烯和1，2，3-环己三烯。其他应变环化合物，环丙基菲，用作亚乙叉、乙烯基卡宾、环丙叉和其他卡宾的光化学前体。对化学结构和活性的基本了解的发展往往需要研究旨在测试关于化学键和稳定性的隐含和明确假设的化合物。达勒姆新汉普郡大学的理查德·约翰逊教授利用光能诱导分子的形成，旨在扩大这种假设的极限，他专注于环状化合物，考虑简单的成键原理将预测其不可能存在。这些研究除了在基础水平上的重要性外，还将为制备具有生物活性的分子和制备不寻常的聚合物材料开辟新的途径，并可能有助于揭示燃烧化学、富勒烯合成和地外化学中观察到的现象。

The Organic Dynamics Program supports studies of photochemistry and strained molecules carried out under the direction of Professor Richard Johnson of the University of New Hampshire at Durham. Through a combination of experimental and calculational studies, Professor Johnson explores the formation and reaction chemistry of high-energy organic compounds with distorted multiple bonds, including small-ring 1,2-dienes such as 1,2-cyclobutadiene and 1,2-cyclopentadiene and 1,2,3-trienes such as 1,2,3-cyclobutatriene and 1,2,3-cyclohexatriene. Other strained-ring compounds, cyclopropanated phenanthrenes, serve as photochemical precursors to vinylidene, vinylcarbene, cyclopropylidene, and other carbenes. Development of a fundamental understanding of chemical structure and reactivity often requires the study of compounds designed to test implicit and explicit assumptions about chemical bonding and stability. Professor Richard Johnson, of the University of New Hampshire at Durham, uses the energy of light to induce the formation of molecules designed to stretch the limits of such assumptions, focusing on cyclic compounds for which consideration of simple bonding principles would predict impossibility of existence. These studies, in addition to their importance on the fundamental level, will lead to new routes for the preparation of molecules with biological activity and for the preparation of unusual polymeric materials, and may also shed light on phenomena observed in combustion chemistry, fullerene (`Bucky ball`) synthesis, and extraterrestrial chemistry.