Abstract: 

Electophilic cyclizations are common reactions to form substituted heterocycles. Here investigations into two systems and the mechanistic findings are presented. In the first part haloboration versus cyclization is explored. Haloboration was found to be reversible and could be intercepted to form zwitterionic sulfonium borates which were analyzed by NMR spectroscopy and X-ray crystallography.

Abstract: 

Abstract: 

Illicium sesquiterpenes showcase diverse polycyclic scaffolds and complex oxygenation patterns. In pursuit of an illicium natural product called illihenin A, total syntheses of helifolenals A–D were achieved. I will share my unpublished work on enantiospecific syntheses of helifolenals A–D featuring an intramolecular Diels–Alder reaction and discuss a biomimetic strategy to illihenin A.

Abstract:

With the increasing levels of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, the need for climate change mitigation has never been more urgent. Developing mass scalable, efficient, and affordable decarbonization technology is a key objective for this generation of scientists. Existing methods for CO2 removal are facilitated by thermally driven systems and thus suffer from being energy-intensive and inefficient. Joint efforts between computational and experimental chemistry fields can help steer research toward uncovering valuable insight into CO2 reactivity with the ideal sorbent.