U.S.-New Zealand Cooperative Research on Epoxides: Mechanisms of Rearrangement and Nucleophilic Addition

该奖项支持巴尔的摩马里兰大学的Dale L. Whalen博士对新西兰基督城坎特伯雷大学James M. Coxon博士的实验室进行为期两年的访问。研究、科学和技术部正在支持Coxon博士对美国的互访。这项合作研究活动旨在研究Lewis酸催化的取代环氧化物重排。该项目将试图确定重排途径和氢在环氧化物中的立体选择性迁移。半经验和初步计算将由两个研究小组进行。交流访问的目的是便于制定计算方法来描述重排过程。Whalen是实验学者，Coxon是理论学者，如果能将这两位互补的研究人员的才能结合起来，就能在有机化学动力学领域对理解立体定向环氧化物重排的中间态做出重大贡献。目前，这种重排机制还没有得到很好的理解。

This award supports visits over a two year period by Dr. Dale L. Whalen of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County to the Laboratory of Dr. James M. Coxon, University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand. The Ministry of Research, Science and Technology is supporting the reciprocal visits by Dr. Coxon to the U.S. This collaborative research activity is designed to investigate Lewis acid-catalyzed rearrangement of substituted epoxides. The project will attempt to determine the rearrangement pathways and the stereoselectivity of hydrogen migration in epoxides. Semi-empirical and initial calculations will be performed by both research groups. Exchange visits are designed to facilitate formulation of the computational approach to profiling the rearrangement process. By combining the talents of these complementary researchers, Whalen the experimentalist and Coxon the theoretician, a significant contribution in the field of organic chemical dynamics toward understanding the intermediate states in stereospecific epoxide rearrangements should occur. At present such rearrangement mechanisms are not well understood.