US- Nigeria Planning Visit: Synthesis and Characterization of Some Reactive Sulfur-Containing Intermediates

在这项计划拨款中，西莫伊博士将与他的尼日利亚合作者乔纳森·奥霍博士合作，研究在化学、环境和生物化学中非常重要的含硫化合物和氧卤素。尽管它们很重要，但在阐明它们的基本化学和这些化合物的反应机理方面做的工作很少。硫的氧化通过许多中间体进行，这项国际合作计划赠款的目的是合成其中一些假定的活性中间体，以深入了解这些有机硫化合物的完整氧化机理。人类每天在工作场所暴露于有机硫化合物(例如，在油漆和农用化学品中)，摄入这些化合物有时会导致无意中的毒性(例如，二异氰酸酯是灰原)。这些化合物是由人体通过氧化代谢处理的；生成的代谢物可以研究以评估有机硫的毒性。我们推测，这些代谢物应该是硫中心相继氧化成硫酸盐，然后硫酸盐被洗脱出生理环境而形成的一系列硫氧酸。在这一规划活动中进行的研究将有助于制定预测几种以前未确定的有机硫化合物毒性的研究框架。该奖项由化学系共同资助。

In this planning grant, Dr. Simoyi will work with his Nigerian collaborator, Dr. Jonathan Ojo, to study sulfur-containing compounds and oxyhalogens that are very important species in chemistry, environmental and biological chemistry. Despite their importance, very little work has been done towards the elucidation of their basic chemistry and reaction mechanisms of these compounds. The oxidation of sulfur proceeds through many intermediate species, and the purpose of this international cooperative planning grant is to synthesize some of these postulated reactive intermediates to gain an insight into the complete oxidation mechanisms of these organosulfur compounds.Humans are exposed to organosulfur compounds everyday in the workplace (e.g, in paints and agrochemicals), and ingestion of these compounds can sometimes result in inadvertent toxicity (e.g. diisocyanates are ashtmatogens). These compounds are metabolically disposed of by the human body through oxidation; the resultant metabolites can be studied to assess the toxicities of the organosulfur. We postulate that these metabolites should be the series of sulfur oxo-acids that are formed as the sulfur center is successively oxidized to the sulfate, which is then eluted out of the physiological environment. The studies undertaken in this planning activity will help in framing research on predicting the toxicities of several previously uncharacterized organosulfur compounds. This award is co-funded by the Division of Chemistry.