Brian Mahoney ’09: Research Update

briand_mahoney.jpgBrian Mahoney will graduate this year with degrees in both chemistry and physics.  His research has been in the chemistry department with Wade Downey, and he spent his summer developing a new way to synthesize propargylic alcohols.  These compounds are frequently used as starting points for further sythesis of drug compounds by the pharmaceutical industry, and Brian has worked to make the sythesis faster and more economical.  Brian began working with professor Downey during his freshman year.  This fall, he will present his work at a chemistry conference in Nashville, TN. 

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mtrawick

Matt Trawick holds a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. from Ohio State University. He was a postdoctoral fellow and later a lecturer at Princeton University before coming to the University of Richmond as an assistant professor in 2004. His research interests include block copolymers, nanotechnology, and atomic force microscopy.

One thought on “Brian Mahoney ’09: Research Update”

  1. We’ve been using TMSOTf as an accelerant for zinc catalyzed addition of terminal acetylenes to aldehydes. The TMS acts as a Lewis acid encouraging nucleophilic attack of the carbonyl, allowing reactions to go to completion at room temperature in an hour. You can see a similar previous method at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/ja993838z. A paper on our work was recently accepted by J. Org. Chem. but it hasn’t been published yet.

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