William Leigh, McMaster University
Chemistry
Professor
Hamilton, Ontario
leigh@mcmaster.ca
Office:
(905) 525-9140 ext. 24504
Expert In
Bio/Research
The group's research interests are in the general areas of physical-organic and physical-organometallic chemistry, and mechanistic organic and organometallic photochemistry. Our work focuses largely on mechanistic studies of the reactions of highly reactive molecules and reaction intermediates in...
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Bio/Research
The group's research interests are in the general areas of physical-organic and physical-organometallic chemistry, and mechanistic organic and organometallic photochemistry. Our work focuses largely on mechanistic studies of the reactions of highly reactive molecules and reaction intermediates in organosilicon, -germanium, and -tin chemistry, using fast time-resolved spectroscopic methods to enable their direct detection and detailed studies of their reactivities. Students gain experience in a wide variety of synthetic, photochemical, analytical, and spectroscopic techniques. These include the common ones - such as high field NMR spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, GC and HPLC, GC/MS, and single crystal x-ray crystallography - as well as specialized techniques such as laser flash photolysis (LFP) and stopped-flow kinetics (SFK) methods. The LFP technique allows the study of intrinsically short-lived (50 ns to ~100 ms) reactive molecules in solution, which are generated by photochemical reactions. The SFK method allows the study of fast reactions of isolable but nevertheless highly reactive molecules on timescales of ~10 ms to minutes. Both methods enable the measurement of the uv-vis absorption spectra, lifetimes, and rate constants for their reactions with various added substrates, and of the intermediates that are formed during the course of these reactions. Fast kinetic studies by LFP are supported with preparative photochemical experiments to enable the isolation and identification of the ultimate products of the reactions of interest.
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