Presented by Wes Borden, University of North Texas

In organic rearrangements that have barriers which are both low and narrow, tunneling by carbon can cause such reactions to occur at appreciable rates, even at very low temperatures. In order to make experimentally testable predictions of the rates of such reactions and of the effects of isotopes on the rates, small-curvature tunneling (SCT) calculations have been performed. The results of these calculations will be described and discussed for three reactions – the carbene ring expansion in eq. 1, the ring opening of cyclopropylcarbinyl radical in eq. 2, and the degenerate rearrangement of semibullvalene in eq. 3. The use of isotope effects to diagnose tunneling by carbon will also be discussed.

Hosted by Prof. Nicholas Turro

Monday, February 28, 2011

Meet the Speaker at 1:30pm in Room, 328 Havemeyer
Tea & cookies at 4:00pm in Room, 328 Havemeyer
Seminar at 4:30 in Room 209 Havemeyer