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Our group carries out broad-based research in Organic Chemistry, ranging from the physical organic and theoretical study of organic reaction mechanisms to the development of new organic reactions. A key advance in our research came with the development of a method for the determination of multiple small kinetic isotope effects in organic reactions at natural abundance. Small kinetic isotope effects can provide detailed information about the mechanism of an exceptional range of chemical reactions. Our method has the advantage of providing much more detailed and precise results than previously possible at a fraction of the work, and we have been applying this method toward the study of a wide variety of organic reactions.

 

 

We have uncovered a way in which dynamic effects can be important in ordinary organic reactions in solution.  The key is that the reaction must involve two successive transition states without an intervening intermediate.  That may sound impossible; in fact, it is likely quite common.  Our goal is to experimentally test for dynamic effects in diverse organic reactions, pinning down the breadth of chemistry for which our most fundamental concepts and assumptions fail.

Most of the mechanistic probes in chemistry - such as kinetics, substituent effects, isotope effects, and activation parameters- define the transition state.  When defining the transition state does not define the mechanism, everything we think we know about reaction mechanisms needs to be reconsidered. 

 

 

Contact Information              Department of Chemistry               Texas A&M University