"Zwitter Ion Synthesis Involving Reactions of Chloranil With Various Imidazoles and Pyridines"

Gretchen worked on the reactions of chloranil with different pyridines and imidazoles to give zwitter ionic compounds that could be used as ligands for various metals. This project focused on n-butyl imidazole, 2-ethylpyridine, and 2-aminomethyl pyridine Pyridines were investigated for the possible future role they may play in creating chiral catalysts, and the imidazole was used to offer a stable reversible reduction for the compound acting as a ligand in a complex. NMR spectroscopy was used to analyze the products isolated from the reactions. The reactions with the 2-substitututed pyridines did not prove to be successful in isolating pyridiniumoxyquinones similar to the product isolated from the reactions using 4-tertbutylpyridine. However, the reactions carried out with n-butyl imidazole did appear to be successful in isolating the desired imidazoloxyquinone product.