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

请求提供资金用于购置一个惰性气氛手套箱工作站。该设备旨在提供无水和无氧的条件，用于我们研究计划所需的新型高度空气敏感化合物的安全和可重现的合成，表征和储存。该计划旨在通过使用“化学技巧”（如电子和空间稳定化）来揭示新的基础知识和性质，以1）分离和表征通常反应性太强而无法观察到的化合物的稳定版本（反应性中间体）; 2）开发能够向过渡金属提供高于平均水平的电子密度的化合物（配体）的新家族。这些配体随后将用于过渡金属催化，目的是发现用于与天然产物合成、材料科学或工业（塑料等）相关的新合成工艺的高活性催化剂;和3）制备可溶性有机还原剂，其可与经典的不溶性金属试剂如钠竞争。这些化合物的溶解性和有机性质为反应条件和产物选择性提供了独特的可能性，并且不存在任何金属残留物使它们成为合成药物的有前途的试剂。因此，这项研究计划将提供新的有趣的分子，这将发展我们对化学原理的基本理解，但也将导致重要的新合成试剂和方法。

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.