Glovebox workstation for the synthesis and handling of air-sensitive compounds

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Funding is requested for the acquisition of an inert atmosphere glovebox workstation. This equipment is designed to provide water and oxygen free conditions for the safe and reproducible synthesis, characterization, and storage of new, highly air-sensitive compounds necessary for our research program. This program seeks to uncover new fundamental knowledge and properties by using "chemical tricks" (such as electronic and steric stabilization) to 1) isolate and characterize stable versions of compounds typically too reactive to be observed (reactive intermediates); 2) develop new families of compounds (ligands) capable of donating above-average amounts of electron density to transition metals. These ligands will subsequently be used in transition metal catalysis, with the goal of discovering highly active catalysts for new synthetic processes relevant to natural product synthesis, materials science, or industry (plastics, etc.); and 3) prepare soluble organic reducing agents that can compete with classical, insoluble, metallic reagents such as sodium. The solubility and organic nature of these compounds offers unique possibilities for reaction conditions and product selectivity, and the absence of any metal residues makes them promising reagents for the synthesis of pharmaceuticals. This research program will therefore provide access to new fundamentally interesting molecules that will develop our basic understanding of chemical principles, but will also lead to important new synthetic reagents and methodologies.