1999 REU Participants

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Dana Olson

Dana is a Chemistry major in his third year at Carleton College

Flexible Extended Lenth Pillars for Open Framework Structures
Dana C. Olson
College of St. Olaf

Michael D. Ward
Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota

Crystal engineering of guanidinium disulfonate networks has demonstrated two main types of host/guest lattice architecture. Work proceeded in an attempt to pinpoint the guest volume at which the architecture changed from bilayer to brick. In the [G]2[4,4-biphenyl disulfonate] guest clathrates, the bilayer isomer formed with guests of molecular volume less that 128 �. The brick isomer is formed most often with guests larger than this value. Work was also done to synthesize and incorporate flexible extended length disulfonate pillars into these open framework structures. The longer flexible pillars, [G]2[1,2-bis(p-sulfophenoxy)ethane] [G]2[1,2-bis(p-sulfophenoxy)propane], were synthesized and successfully incorporated into host/guest clathrates. A sterically hindered pillar. [G]2[1.2-bis{3,5-dimethyl-4-sulfophenoxy)ethane}, was synthesized in hopes of creating a pillar that would be forced into the brick architecture due to sterics, but has yet to be incorporated into host/guest clathrate. Finally, the synthesis of a hetero pillar presented the possibility of a double bilyer structure, however, this too has to form a crystal structure.