Debra K. Dillner, Associate Professor Ph.D., University of Rochester (410) 293-6336 Chemistry Department U.S. Naval Academy 572M Holloway Road Annapolis, MD 21402-5026 ddillner@usna.edu Department Home Page

Research Interests

Research is being carried out in the general area of synthetic organic chemistry and focus within that area on both total synthesis and synthetic methodology. Three projects are being undertaken. The first is the total synthesis of dolabelladiene, a marine natural product, and related compounds. This class of molecules contain an eleven-membered ring fused to a five-membered ring. The synthesis calls for formation of the five-membered ring which will be joined to an acyclic alkene to form the eleven-membered ring. Once this synthesis is complete, conversion of dolabelladiene to other similar molecules will be undertaken.

As a result of preliminary studies into formation of cyclopentanes, a project to develop methods for constructing these systems has been developed. A bicyclo[3.3.0]octane is used as a template. Stereocontrolled reactions of this template can lead to a variety of substituted cyclopentanes. A short, efficient synthesis of the template has been completed and stereocontrolled reactions are currently being investigated.

A third project is in the area of NMR spectroscopy of terpenes.  This project entails the synthesis of substituted cyclohexane rings, followed by acquisition of 1D and 2D NMR spectra of these compounds, leading to complete spectral determination of structures.  Similar projects on other molecules are also being undertaken.

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