Chemistry Commons^™

Synthesis, Characterization, And Cytotoxicity Studies Of A Copper(Ii) Complex With Vanillin 3-Ethyl-Thiosemcarbazone A Ligand, Novia Mann, Ifeoluwa Oyeyemi, Duaa R. Alajroush, Elizabeth A. Tonsel-White, Stephen J. Beebe, Alvin Holder

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is one of the most aggressive and challenging breast cancer subtypes to treat, as these cancer cells lack three common receptors: estrogen, progesterone, and human epidermal growth factor receptor 2. The multiple oxidation states transition metals can occupy have made this narrowly explored group popular for anti-cancer research in recent decades. Furthermore, the success of cisplatin, which has platinum as a metal center, while being a cancer-fighting agent with serious side effects, has caused other metal centers to be investigated as possible alternatives as chemotherapeutic drugs. Copper, as a biologically essential metal, makes an attractive candidate …

Access To Nitrogen Heterocycles Via Borrowing Hydrogen Catalysis, Robert P. Reynolds, Kellen P. Mcguire, Conor T. Mccormick, Kyle M. Lambert

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Nitrogen heterocycles are ubiquitous motifs which occur as the core structure of several alkaloid natural products exhibiting inherent biological activity against an array of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and cancer cell lines. These azacycles serve as key synthetic building blocks for medicinal chemists to access more structurally complex and diverse compounds with tunable biological properties. A synthetic approach to these valuable motifs employing intramolecular borrowing hydrogen catalysis has been developed. The utility of the developed chemistry will be applied to synthetic efforts towards the recently isolated Cylicomorphins A-E.

Oxidation Of Thiols To Disulfides Using An Environmentally “Green” Organocatalyst And New Mechanistic Insights, Kosta V. Vlasakakis, Olivia M. White, Robert P. Reynolds, Shayne M. Weierbach, Shannon M. Weaver, Ramsey T. Ritter, Nishi H. Patel, Eric C. Hayes, Sydney Dunmire, Kyle M. Lambert

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The selective oxidation of thiols to disulfides is an area of great importance in the areas of materials and medicinal chemistry research. The production of polymers, rubber, pharmaceuticals, and the folding of proteins in biological systems all rely on the formation of disulfide bonds. Herein, we introduce a stoichiometric and electrocatalytic method for the oxidation of various pharmaceutically and biologically relevant thiols into their respective disulfides in more environmentally benign solvents such as water and alcohol solvents. The scope of the transformation was evaluated and a detailed mechanistic study involving control experiments, experimental kinetic studies, and computational investigations led to …

Toward Unraveling The Mechanisms Of “Green” Mechanochemical Reactions, Richard Chen, Mehmet Kerem Gokus

Undergraduate Research Symposium

The mechanical processing of solids, such as milling or grinding powders, often leads to mechanochemical reactions. Mechanochemistry affords “green” synthetic routes avoiding or reducing the use of solvents, thus providing environmentally friendly and cost-effective synthetic alternatives for many materials. The solid-state reactants are usually ground together with small quantities of organic solvents, called “liquid assisted grinding” (LAG). LAG increases the reaction rates, it can yield products from otherwise unreactive mixtures, it increases the products crystallinity, and it selectively leads to crystal structures (polymorphs) of the products, depending on the quantities and physicochemical properties of the liquids used in LAG.

Mechanochemistry …