Associate Professor of Chemistry Dr. Linda M. Mascavage participated in the 244th American Chemical Society National Meeting and Exposition: Materials for Health and Medicine, held in Philadelphia, Aug. 19-23.

She presented “Gas Phase Hydrochlorination Reactions of Isoprene: Experimental and Computational Studies,” in collaboration with Dr. David R. Dalton of Temple University and Dr. Philip E. Sonnet of the United States Department of Agriculture.

The gases hydrogen chloride and isoprene (2-methyl-1,3-butadiene), a key volatile organic compound (VOC) in tropospheric chemistry, were reacted at subatmospheric pressures and ambient temperatures to give 1-chloro-3-methyl-2-butene as the major product. FT-IR was utilized to simultaneously monitor the disappearance of reactants and the appearance of chlorinated product(s). Product studies were done using FT-IR and ¹H NMR (400 MHz) analyses, comparing authentic samples with product mixtures. Theoretical studies, at the MP2 (full)/6-31 G9d) level, evaluated transition state structures for both 1,2 and 1,4 addition reactions with the involvement of water. Kinetics and mechanisms are consistent with a wall-catalyzed process.

This presentation was selected by division program chairs to also be given at the “Sci-Mix,” which represents the most exceptional abstracts submitted to participating divisions. Mascavage also chaired a session on “Physical Organic Chemistry: Calculations, Mechanisms, Photochemistry, and High-energy Species.”