Chemical Synthesis Center

The Chemical Synthesis Center (CSC) provides state-of-the-art design and synthesis services to industrial and academic scientists for the preparation of chemical substances. Although its primary focus is on those molecules used in biological and biomedical research, synthesis of other compounds is routinely undertaken. In the past, the major users of the center have been workers who do not wish to prepare their own molecules, or who do not have access to synthetic facilities. The CSC consists of a fully equipped synthetic chemistry laboratory in the Graduate Chemistry Building, together with the necessary equipment for the purification and analysis at the milligram to one hundred gram scale.

Equipment is available for most routine chemical transformations including ozonolysis, low pressure hydrogenation and photochemical reactions. Since it is located in the Chemistry Department, the facility has access to all of the Department’s major instrument facilities. Those include FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy along with NMR spectrometers which range from 250 to 600 Mhz (proton). 1H, 13C, 19F, and 31P-NMR are routinely available with other nuclei on request.

Services the CSC can provide include:

• Consultation, including literature searches, to select molecules of interest.
• Synthetic design for new molecules or modifications of known molecules.
• Chemical syntheses.
• Purification and documentation of chemical homogeneity.
• Verification of structure by spectroscopic and physiochemical methods.
• A limited amount of long-term contract research is also undertaken.

James F. Marecek, Director
745 Chemistry Building
Zip plus 3400
632-7949; Fax 632-7960

Last Update: 2003-05-25