Professor Doug McMillen used to be our full-time organic chemist, but over the years he has risen through the administration and now holds the title of Vice Chancellor. This spring was his last semester teaching organic chemistry for us - which he did graciously on top of his other duties to fill an unexpected vacancy. But chemistry will always be one of his passions and his dedication to chemistry and our students is clearly illustrated this summer as he mentors biochemistry major Brody Deming on a research project. Deming is a junior in our department and is considering going to medical school after graduation. He has nicely summarized their project for us:
Dr. McMillen and I are working on researching a greener way to oxidize alcohols to carbonyls. A lot of the reagents used in today’s chemistry can be harsh to humans and the environment. Examples of these reagents are potassium dichromate and pyridinium chlorochromate (PCC). Potassium dichromate and PCC are listed as carcinogenic and are very toxic to aquatic life. It is important to find greener reagents to minimize risk for the chemist and help the environment. In the past, McMillen has researched with N-iodosuccinimide with good results. It was found that the iodine in N-iodosuccinimide could be activated using a strong base. This poses a problem though because N-iodosuccinimide is expensive. We decided that this summer we would work on trying to find a way to activate I2 instead of N-iodosuccinimide since it would be cheaper. Thus far, the results are promising but we are trying to find a way to maximize yield.
