Microscopy for Organic Chemists: Insights into the Location of Chemical Reactivity

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In this project, funded by the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Suzanne A. Blum of the University of California, Irvine is developing microscopy techniques that reveal chemical reactions at ultimate sensitivity limits. These techniques advance the boundaries of technology while concurrently answering long-standing questions in chemistry. These studies provide suggestions for improving the efficiencies of chemical reactions, resulting in reduced costs and waste generation and lower energy demands in the synthesis of advanced materials and pharmaceutical building blocks.This project focuses on developing single-molecule and -particle microscopy techniques that reveal the locations of chemical reactions. Such location information will be used to understand the mechanisms of organic reactions including late-metal catalysis. Single-particle studies are performed via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order to test ideas about the spatial homogeneity and efficiencies of surface-supported molecular catalysts. Single-molecule studies are performed via fluorescence microscopy. These studies bring together the diverse expertise of a collaborative research team in organic synthesis, mechanistic investigation, reaction development, and single-molecule and particle microscopy experimental design and tool development. The broader impacts of the proposal include methods for improving catalyst efficiency and generation of fundamental mechanistic information for the development of synthetic methods. The expansion of a successful future faculty teacher training program at the University of California, Irvine, that the principle investigator initiated forms an additional broader impact in order to advance the NSF goals of advancing discovery and understanding while promoting teaching, training and learning, and broadening participation of underrepresented groups. The expansion increases the number of graduate students receiving training in teaching, the diversity of chemistry courses in which the training occurs, the participation of faculty mentors as trainers in pedagogy, and the quantity of undergraduate students reached.