New Horizons in Organic Electron Transfer

每个学化学的小学生都熟悉金属钠在水中的反应性。钠是一种极易反应的物质，很容易失去一个电子而变成钠离子。其他金属也或多或少容易转移电子。有机分子（不含金属）如果结构合适，可以转移电子。然而，中性有机分子能够充当强电子供体是极不寻常的。我们已经制备了强电子供体，并发现了第一个能够通过严格测试的中性有机分子，即将卤苯转化为芳基阴离子。这种反应性是前所未有的，它给了我们令人兴奋的机会，使我们有进一步的发现。我们现在的目标是探索新化学的许多方面，以确定它有多有用，并突破我们知识的极限。随着越来越多强大的有机电子供体的出现，我们面临着创造一种与钠反应性相当的有机分子的诱人前景。然而，我们的分子会比钠更安全，并且可以在反应烧瓶中以需要激活的形式运输。在这个项目中，我们将测试我们的分子，看看它的反应性的极限，我们将设计新的分子家族，以类似的方式表现。

Every school pupil who studies chemistry will be familiar with the reactivity of sodium metal in water. Sodium is an extremely reactive substance and readily loses an electron to become a sodium ion. Other metals also transfer electrons more or less readily.Organic molecules [containing no metals] can transfer an electron if their structures are appropriate. However, it is extremely unusual for a neutral organic molecule to be able to act as a strong electron donor. We have prepared strong electron donors and have discovered the first neutral organic molecule to be able to pass a stern test, i.e. to convert halobenzenes into aryl anions. The reactivity is unprecedented, and it gives us exciting opportunities to make further discoveries.Our aim now is to explore many aspects of the new chemistry to determine how useful it is and to push back the limits of our knowledge. As we move to more and more powerful organic electron donors, we face the tantalising prospect of creating an organic molecule equivalent in reactivity to sodium. However, our molecules would be safer than sodium and could be transported in a form that needs activation in a reaction flask.During this project we will test our molecule to see the limits of its reactivity, and we will design novel families of molecules that behave in an analogous way.