Susquehanna Valley Section

November 2004 Meeting

Meeting cancelled - Owing to a personal emergency, Dr. Tara Meyer will be unable to be at Lycoming to present her work. Check back here for updates. The event may be rescheduled if possible.

The three hundred and fifty-third meeting of the Section will be held on Wednesday, November 10, 2004 at Lycoming College in Williamsport Pennsylvania. The guest speaker, Professor Tara Meyer, will deliver a talk entitled "The Development of a Palladium-Catalyzed One-Pot, Four-Component Coupling Reaction".

Dinner: The dinner will begin at 6:00 p.m. at the Bullfrog Brewery and Restaurant, 229 W. Fourth Street, Williamsport. Dinner will be from the menu. Please call or e-mail your reservations to Laura Printzenhoff (570-321-4180, printz@lycoming.edu) by November 7.

Lecture: The lecture will start at 8:00 p.m. in room G-09 of the Heim Science building on the Lycoming College campus.

Directions to the restaurant: From I-80, take Route 15 N. Travel approximately 15 miles to Williamsport. Continue on 15 N over the Market Street Bridge (stay in the left lane). Turn left on 4th Street and continue straight to 229 4th Street.

Directions to the University: From I-80, take Route 15 N. Travel approximately 15 miles to Williamsport. Continue on 15 N over the Market Street Bridge (stay in the left lane). Follow the sign for the Business District. Go to the third traffic light and make a right on to Little League Blvd. Go 1 block to the stop sign and turn left on to Mulberry Street. Travel to the first traffic light and turn right on to Washington Blvd. The entrance to the parking lot will be on your right. Parking is located in front of the Heim Building.

The Development of a Palladium-Catalyzed One-Pot, Four-Component Coupling Reaction
Pd(PPh₃)₄ catalytically assembles sulfenamide, alkyne, carbon monoxide and diphenyl diselenide regio- and stereoselectively in a one-pot four-component coupling reaction to yield (Z)-b-selenyl acrylamides. The reaction proceeds in good to excellent yields (60-95%) and is tolerant of a range of functional groups on both the nitrogen of the sulfenamide and the alkyne. Moderate selectivities ranging from 4:1 to 7:1 b-selenyl to b-sulfenyl acrylamide have been observed despite the initial concentration of 2:1 selenium to sulfur in the reaction. The selectivity was found to depend directly on CO pressure; increased pressure decreased selectivity for selenium over sulfur.

Professor Meyer began her chemistry career at Grinnell College. After receiving her undergraduate degree she began studying early transition metal chemistry under the supervision of her Ph.D. mentor, Prof. Louis Messerle, at the University of Iowa. Upon graduation in 1991, she spent one year doing postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Prof. Richard Jordan. In 1992, she moved on to the University of California, Berkeley where she worked with Professors Robert Bergman and Bruce Novak on the preparation of homogeneous catalysts supported by solublized silicon oxides. Prof. Meyer began her independent career at the University of Pittsburgh in 1994 and was promoted with tenure to associate professor in 2001. Research in the Meyer group focuses on the development of new metal-catalyzed processes and on the synthesis of highly sequenced polymers.