内容简介：
【简介】
Research Areas:
In the Penn Chemistry Department a broad range of biological problems are being attacked, from the structure of proteins and nucleic acids, to enzyme mechanisms, to neurochemistry. Techniques in use cover all of modern chemistry: NMR spectroscopy, X-ray and neutron diffraction, laser and synchrotron radiation, as well as recombinant and synthetic DNA approaches.
The inorganic chemistry program at Penn is unusually diverse and interdisciplinary in nature, encompassing synthetic, spectroscopic, structural, mechanistic, and theoretical research programs involving new molecular, polymeric, and solid-state compounds and materials. A major emphasis in many of the research programs is the design and synthesis of new molecules and materials having specific chemical or physical properties. Some specific areas of current interest include: metallo-radicals, electron and energy transfer reactions, metallo-enzymes and the de novo synthesis of artificial metalloproteins, main group chemistry, transition-metal catalyzed reactions of organic and inorganic compounds, solid-state chemistry, new conducting polymers and liquid crystals, inorganic polymers, ceramic processing, and molecules and materials with novel optical properties.
Organic Chemistry at Penn encompasses the study of organic synthesis, conducting polymers, bioorganic chemistry, organometallic chemistry, photochemistry, and physical organic chemistry. Programs are available in new synthetic methodology, synthesis of novel polymers and liquid crystals, total synthesis of natural products with anticancer, antibiotic, antiallergic, and antithrombotic action, the design and synthesis of biologically interesting compounds, mechanistic organic chemistry, and the synthesis of theoretically interesting molecules. Current projects cover a wide spectrum of topics ranging from synthesis of macrolides, polyethers, cyclopentanoids, alkaloids, marine natural products, pheromones, cyclic peptides, anthracyclines, sphingolipids, nucleotides, and carbohydrates, to organometallic and organofluorine chemistry and NMR studies of organic and bioorganic molecules. Molecular modeling is an increasingly important part of organic chemistry. Current applications at Penn ran ge from molecular mechanics to high-level ab initio molecular orbital calculations.
Research in physical chemistry at Penn uses modern theoretical and experimental techniques to obtain a fundamental understanding of the structure, dynamics, and reactivity of molecular systems. Species under investigation range from isolated gas-phase molecules--such as radicals, highly-excited molecules, and molecular clusters-- to condensed phase systems involving surfaces, liquid solutions, biological macromolecules, and novel materials. Spectroscopic and dynamical methods are used to probe potential energy surfaces of molecules, molecule-surface interactions, and solute-solvent forces, as well as chemical reactions, photochemistry, and energy transfer processes. Penn is recognized internationally as a center of expertise for the applications of lasers to chemical and biological problems. There are outstanding programs in high-resolution laser spectroscopy, multiphoton processes, nonlinear optics, and ultrafast phenomena. In addition to lasers, solid state NMR, synchrotron radiati on, molecular beam, scanning probe microscopy, and ultrahigh vacuum surface analysis methods are widely used. As part of the interdisciplinary Materials Research Laboratory (LRSM) at Penn, physical chemists are examining structural and dynamical aspects of novel materials, liquid crystalline phases, and thin films. Many fundamental physical processes of large biomolecules are under investigation in the Regional Laser and Biotechnological Laboratories (RLBL). Theoretical chemistry is particularly strong in the areas of statistical mechanics, quantum dynamics, and molecular dynamics, with emphasis on the theory and computer simulation of biophysical systems, novel materials and condensed phase processes. Excellent computing facilities are available within the department, including dozens of workstations and a mini-supercomputer with high level three-dimensional graphics capabilities.
Because the interfaces are often only a small fraction of a system by volume, experimentalists at Penn are constantly inventing new surface-sensitive techniques, including near-field optical microscopy, resonant Raman techniques, and single molecule detection schemes. Chemistry at interfaces spans a wide range of energy and time scales and involves unusual chemical bonds, so Penn theoretical chemists have created advanced Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics methods as well as techniques to model complex systems with quantum mechanical accuracy. In addition to answering fundamental questions, Penn chemists are motivated to study interfaces because of the interdisciplinary nature of this work, and the plethora of real-world applications.
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