Dr. Lampman's Research

My current areas of interest are:
 

I. Microscale Organic and Modern Instrumentation in the Undergraduate Curriculum.  

I am interested in developing new methods and experiments for the undergraduate and upper-division organic laboratories that involve NMR (proton, carbon, 2D), FT-IR, GC-MS, HPLC, and computer modeling and simulation techniques. I have a continuing interest in the development of new microscale teaching methods and the improvement of old ones.

II. Cobaloxime Chemistry.  

My interest in recent years has centered around the preparation of coenzyme B12 related compounds. The most widely prepared cobalt compounds are the organobis(dimethylglyoximato)pyridine cobalt(III) complexes called cobaloximes. They are prepared in a very straightforward way by reacting two moles of dimethylglyoxime, one mole of cobalt(II), and one mole of pyridine in alkaline solution under nitrogen. This gives a paramagnetic cobalt(II) complex which can then disproportionate in basic solution to give a cobalt(III) complex and the desired cobalt(I) species. The cobalt(I) species is a fantastic nucleophile which can easily displace halogen or tosylate to yield the desired cobaloxime.

A number of these complexes have been prepared which have unsaturation in the R group. We have allowed these complexes to react with radicals and electrophiles to give in a regiospecific manner a number of organic compounds with the cobalt group eliminated:

We are currently investigating the use of tribromoacetaldehyde and trichloronitromethane in these reactions. Reduction of the adducts with chromium(II) and titanium(III) is being investigated as a useful route to unsaturated (unconjugated) aldehydes.

III. Writing Undergraduate Textbooks for Organic Chemistry and Spectroscopy.

I am currently involved in an on-going project as co-author of a series of organic chemistry textbooks. Included among the titles are Introduction to Organic Laboratory Techniques: A Contemporary Approach (1976,1982,1988), Introduction to Organic Laboratory Techniques: A Microscale Approach (1989,1995)and Introduction to Spectroscopy (1979,1996). At this time, a fourth edition of the original laboratory textbook is being prepared, and a manuscript for a lecture textbook in organic chemistry is undergoing development.